Walt County - Seven Dwarves
by Emma Reade
Summary: Sheriff deputies Elsa and Aladdin find themselves ensnared in a dark and seedy world living beneath the supposedly quiet Walt County. When the seven dwarves begin to be killed off one by one Elsa and Aladdin end up in a race against the clock to find the killer before s/he kills all of the dwarves and Snow White. Features entire Disney universe.
1. Chapter 1

Walt County

_-Chapter One-_

**Author's Note: First of all just want to say it's so great to be writing fanfiction again. For those who are fans of my previous story "Elsa, the Great" there will be a sequel made within the coming months but I wanted to write this story first. I should also warn that unlike my previous story which was rated "T" this is a hard "M" story. I feel it is important to warn people that this is not a family friendly story despite the characters. Reviews and feedback are always appreciated; hope you enjoy this first chapter.**

The morning fog rolled across the plains of Walt County like a thin blanket over a child's bed. The temperature was cool; this winter had been warmer than most but in Wyoming that still meant it was well below freezing. The weatherman seemed pretty confident that a big chill was on the way; just in time for Christmas.

Christmas was on the mind of Pocahontas as she jogged through her favorite hiking trail. It was her routine, every morning she'd go for a quick run before work. It didn't have to be long or even intense in any form. Pocahontas got plenty of fresh air and exercise working up at the ranger station, but she loved this morning run. It was a good way to clear her mind and get her heart racing; it was almost like verification everything still worked.

She had a lot on her mind this day in particular. The state park was in dire need of new facilities and they had already been forced to let four employees go due to budget cuts. They needed a donation or a grant or perhaps just a miracle. A miracle would be easier at this point it felt like.

As she pondered over what proposal she would try and write up for a donation she neared Lake Faded. Named after the midget faded rattlesnake which at one point was prominent in the area the lake was fairly small but it was deceptively deep. At some points the lake was about thirty feet deep; the clear water made it look like it was only a few feet but those trying to touch the bottom would quickly realize their folly. When Pocahontas was little she remembered hearing about a little boy who had gone to swim in the lake. He was going to the bottom to collect rocks with seashell fossils. Or something like that, the story had changed so many times over the years she wondered if it was an urban legend. The way it always ended was the same however; boy doesn't realize how deep it is, he goes down and can't make it back up. The boy panics and swallows too much water; drowning in the clear abyss.

Maybe it was just a story parents used to scare their children out of swimming in lakes without supervision, but it wasn't that farfetched of a tale. Even now as a grown woman she dare not take a dip in Lake Faded. She would however take a nice look at the body of water. It was an elegant sight to behold during the winter as the lake would freeze over. She liked how the snow dust would sparkle off of the hard ice as the sun would hit it just right. As Pocahontas approached the lake however she noticed something odd. She stepped closer, cautiously and finally got a better look. She let out a scream, and backed away. It was horrific she had never seen anything like it before, it was as if the legend of the boy was true. Trapped under the ice with cold eyes looking up and a face twisted to an unnatural near cheshire like grin was a dead body.

* * *

Elsa filled up her cup with black coffee and took a quick sip of the caffeinated glory she took in regularity. As she sipped from her mug she made her way into the archives wing of the sheriff's station. It was called the archives wing, but it was really more of a medium-large room stacked with rusted shelves and a dehumidifier that had probably been there since the late 90s. Elsa perused the boxes of cold cases, just staring at the names. There were a lot of slow days working in Walt County so sometimes she would examine old cold cases seeing if she could somehow solve these forgotten mysteries. No luck in all her time here, television made it look at lot easier than it truly was. In real life there was a very good reason why cases went cold; they were lost causes.

Elsa adjusted her badge and then reached for a box when she suddenly heard a voice calling her; it belonged to Basil. "Elsa! Can you get out here for a moment?" Elsa didn't dare keep the sheriff waiting and exited the archives wing to see what he needed. Basil stood in the hall with his overly sophisticated spectacles planted squarely on his face as he read from a time card. Elsa always felt that the Brit had a mousey look to him, which matched his condescending personality quite well actually. Still Elsa admired his brains and in his youth he had been one of the best investigators in county history. There was a reason they didn't need an actual wing of a building for cold cases; Sheriff Basil Baker.

"Deputy Elsa, I was wondering if you could assist me with a certain question I had. It pertains to your partner." Basil didn't even look up from the time card, Elsa knew what was about to happen but played along as she always did. "A question the great Basil Baker can't answer on his own? This must be a real puzzle." Sighed Elsa. Basil didn't even smile, it was if he was bored with his own joke.

"Yes, well you see your partner based on his time card and assigned duties was supposed to be here and signed on with dispatch at 0800 hours. It is now twenty minutes past the hour and he has still not shown up. Now may you explain to me what his problem is?"

Elsa shrugged her shoulders and then took a long sip from her cup. "Well Sheriff I reckon the mole people finally got 'im. Want me to call Jasmine and let her know her husband ain't coming home tonight?" Elsa grinned a bit, she had used various excuses throughout the years; alien abduction, fire, bear mauling, mole people was a new one. She was impressed with her own on the fly creativity. Basil was not so amused. "Well then, when your partner does arrive please inform him that he will not be paid for the time he wasn't here. That is all for now, if you need me I shall be in my office." With that Basil turned up and went into his office. Elsa shook her head and then heard the familiar sound of a car pulling up to the station. She went outside to meet her partner who was late, as always.

As Aladdin or 'AL' as he preferred to be called hopped out of his old sedan that was blasting 'Rapper's Delight' loud enough to make the windows rattle Elsa coulnd't help but smirk. Aladdin was dancing to the song and singing along, trying to get Elsa to join in who just stood grinning as she drank from her cup. Finally giving up Aladdin turned off his radio and removed his sunglasses. Elsa knew why Aladdin was always running late, he would swoon over his wife during breakfast and then spend an extended period of time primping for work. Aladdin cared deeply about his image and how other people saw him. Having grown up poor and marrying into money he wanted to prove his worth at every turn. His uniform was always finely pressed without a speck of lint. The collar on his jacket was always popped and Elsa could often see her reflection in his boots. Elsa cared about how she looked as well of course, but she believed if someone timed their morning routines she would be faster every time. Heck, someone WAS timing them; their boss. "Why were you even wearing shades on a foggy morning like this?" asked Elsa as she began to turn back inside. "I've got to keep up appearances Elsa, can't let anyone think I'm not cool." Elsa chuckled as she led Aladdin inside "Al, we live in Wyoming. Take it down a notch."

As Elsa and Aladdin took to their desks they were already ready to drift off into another routine day when suddenly they got a call from Wilhelmina Packard on dispatch. "DAVID-1 is DAVID-2 10-8?" Elsa rolled her eyes and pointed to Aladdin who spoke into his radio. "CONTROL-1 this is DAVID-2 I am 10-8." There was a slight pause "What's your 20 DAVID-2?" Al was quick to respond "I am at HQ with DAVID-1. What's going on?" Wilhelmina hesitated once again which was unlike her "We got a possible 10-35 up at Lake Faded. We need you to get over there, but uh,…you're gonna need some help."

10-35 meant major crime, most likely murder. What was Wilhelmina talking about? "Help? You want us to grab SAM-1?" asked Elsa into her radio. "Nah honey, I mean the body is trapped under the ice. It's gonna take some heavy equipment to get the poor bastard out." Elsa hesitated but then replied "Alright 10-69, we'll be 10-76 soon." Elsa ended the transmission with dispatch and then grabbed her phone.

"How the hell are we supposed to cut through the ice? It's not like we've got picks out in the bone yard" questioned Aladdin as Elsa dialed a number. "What about Kristoff, he should have some sort of ice drill" thought Elsa out loud.

"I thought that thing was broken."

"It was broken last winter, but I'm sure he's fixed it by now. I mean he needs it for work."

"You're wasting your time."

"We'll see about that."

"You just want him to be useful 'cause you think he's right for your sister."

"He's better than her current boyfriend; Hans. Guy is a real sunshine boy, can't stand him."

"Doesn't mean he'll magically have an ice drill that works."

At that moment Kristoff picked up the other end and Elsa kept eye contact with Aladdin as she spoke. "Hey Kris, this is deputy sheriff Elsa with Walt County. Not sure if you remember me." Aladdin didn't have to hear the other end to know that Kristoff was gushing over Elsa as she smiled. "Well that's very kind of you to say, we all had a good time that night. Especially Anna. Anyway I'm not here to talk to you about that need your help. Is your ice drill fixed?" Elsa then just slyly lifted her arm happily; she was right. Grinning she wrapped up the conversation with Kristoff "Thank you kindly Kris, meet us over at Lake Faded as soon as you can will you? Bring the strikemaster with you." Elsa hung up the phone and then adjusted her holster.

"Alright you were right, what do I owe you this time?" asked Aladdin as they gathered their things to leave. "You can buy me lunch, forgot to pack one today." Elsa and Aladdin made their way outside to their car and slipped into the seats with Aladdin driving. "Forgot to pack a lunch again? That's the second time this week, you know if you had a man in the house to maybe make you a sandwich from time to time…" Elsa sighed "Al, not today. We're not talking about this." Aladdin instantly backed off. "Alright, alright! I'll drop it. But we will talk about this some more." And then the two partners sped out towards Lake Faded.

* * *

When they arrived Kristoff was already on the scene ready to drill through the ice, after getting the okay he began to free to corpse trapped beneath the frozen layer. Pocahontas stood back still a little shaken from finding the corpse. Aladdin got onto the ice with trepidation but Elsa strolled towards the scene with ease. "Be careful Elsa, the ice may be thin in some parts. Don't want to fall in with water this cold" warned Aladdin.

"You know I don't mind the cold."

"That's because you're white."

"Well next time we have a body buried in sand I'll let you lead."

Aladdin laughed with Elsa, though Kristoff was unsure whether he should join in with the politically incorrect humor. "Okay let's get this guy out and check his tags" said Elsa as Kristoff made a rectangle block as some members of the local investigation unit hoisted the block out with a pulley. Elsa and Aladdin began to take notes as they finally got a clear look at the body. "Oh my god, it's one of the dwarves" gasped Kristoff.

Indeed it was, it was the body of Happy one of the seven dwarves. Elsa had never really socialized with any of the dwarves but they were a prominent group in not only the state but they were known throughout the world. They had all gotten rich off of their diamond mines and all being dwarves became somewhat of a gimmick. They had a short lived reality show a few years ago and they even sold some merchandise in a little shop that was operated by Doc and Sneezy. "It's only a matter of time before the press is crawling all over here. Better get to what we need now" advised Aladdin as he tapped his pen onto the block of ice.

"Kinda looks like….he's smiling" whispered Elsa to Aladdin and Kristoff as they noticed that Happy's face had been contorted into some sort of imitation of a smile. It appeared that something had been lodged into his mouth to force some sort of weird grin.

"He does look like he's smiling. What kind of sick person would do that?" asked Pocahontas fighting back tears. "Heh, looks like Han Solo in carbonite!" Aladdin laughed at his own joke, Elsa and Pocahontas just glared at him while Kristoff scoffed. "Oh come on, that was clever. How many times in life do you get to pull that joke out?" Elsa shook her head, then saw that members of the press were already heading towards the scene.

"We need to get ahead of this, or else they're going to have a field day" groaned Elsa. She could see Tinkerbell in her ludicrous winter mini skirt marching towards them ready to bombard them with a bevy of prying questions. They would dodge giving out details and she would push harder in the seemingly endless game of back and forth they were destined to take part in. "Gotta call the Dwarves, don't want them to find out about this on the five o' clock news." Elsa motioned to Aladdin who put his jacket over the face of Happy.

As Tinkerbell got closer Elsa and Aladdin received word on their radios "All units we've got a 10-33. Possible 10-35—" dispatch was cut off by Aladdin "Dispatch we know, we're at the scene." Aladdin was about to put his radio back when dispatch came back on "DAVID-2 you don't understand. 10-35 is related to a Sneezy. Friend found the body just a few minutes ago." Elsa's eyes grew wide "Al, I think we might be dealing with something big here." Aladdin was quick to shut down Elsa's path of logic "Calm down Blondie, could just be a coincidence." Elsa was not convinced but before she could continue Tinkerbell was already upon the group.

"Tinkerbell, Walt Gazette. What have we got here?" Elsa hesitated; she wasn't very good at these things. She often came off a little detached in these interviews. She still could feel the lump in her throat after she had been chastised by Basil for her "casual demeanor" during a televised interview about an armed robbery gone wrong a few years ago. Sensing her fear Aladdin stepped in with his million dollar smile, and based on Tinkbell's body language his charisma was as sharp as ever.

"Aladdin Ali Ababwa, Deputy to the Sheriff. How can I help you?"

"Well for starters has CI been through here yet?"

"They're in route. Should be rendezvousing with them shortly."

"So what's your guess: Accident? Suicide? Foul play?"

"Well Ms. Tinkerbell that'd be speculation at this point. Not my department."

"But you are a part of the Sheriff's investigation unit are you not?"

"Everyone in the Sheriff's department is in that unit. This is Walt County miss, we need all the manpower we can muster. But I can promise you that we are working diligently to find out exactly what happened here with our victim. I'd release the name to you but as you know we haven't informed the family yet so that is no bueno."

"Very well Deputy Ali Ababwa, but I expect you will let me know as soon as you can, correct?"

"Of course. You'll be the first to know. Promise."

"Good, here is my card."

Tinkerbell pulled out her card and then slipped into the front pocket of Aladdin's shirt patting it and the badge. "I already have your card miss" explained Aladdin trying to avoid the gaze of Tinkerbell. Aladdin was a married man and had zero interest in fooling around, those days were long gone. "This is my new number, had to switch carriers. Call me anytime Deputy" and with that Tinkerbell walked off towards Pocahontas. Aladdin sighed in relief and went back to Elsa.

"We gotta get out of here partner. Figure out what happened to Sneezy. CI will take care of this and we'll meet Jack after lunch." Elsa gagged a bit "Oh please let's not eat BEFORE we go to the morgue. Remember with that guy who got caught in his boat propeller last May?" Aladdin nodded his head "Yeah, I think Egan was his name or maybe Edward."

"Well whatever his name was I ended up blowing chunks the rest of the afternoon."

"Was pretty gnarly. But this guy should be fine I mean he's just frozen. He'll probably still be thawing out by the time we get there."

"He'll still smell."

"Alright fine, we'll get something to eat AFTER the morgue. Geez you are so picky."

"I'm just particular."

"Which is just the long form for picky. Come on let's roll out."

* * *

Elsa and Aladdin arrived faster than expected to the house of Sneezy. It was a small cottage style home with a brick chimney. The lawn was bare, there were no flowers or any type of shrubbery around and the grass was pale yellow. The inside of the house was spotless however; free of dust and any other irritants. Sneezy clearly took every precaution to ensure he didn't have an allergy episode while in the comfort of his home. Aladdin examined the clean and polished floors. "Nice little house" he said to all who would hear him. There were already some members of the crime scene investigation unit taking pictures and taping up part of the house. Basil was on the scene, a rarity these days.

"There you two are! What took you so long? Was Aladdin driving?" he growled, he was blocking their view from some sort of walk in closet. "Easy boss, we were taking care of another dead body down by the lake. And I always drive." Aladdin was already on the defensive with Basil who glinted at the deputy "Who was the victim?" Elsa budged in "Happy, one of the seven dwarves." Basil cringed a bit and rubbed his fingers together. He was trying and failing to quit smoking. He had been good enough to limit his smoking to off duty but at this moment Elsa could tell the veteran Sheriff needed his fix.

"Shit. This ain't looking good" mumbled Basil which caused Elsa and Aladdin to raise their eyebrows. Basil stepped out of the way revealing the closet and Elsa gasped a bit. Sneezy was strung up inside of the closet; his face was almost as blue as the frozen Happy's but this was due to loss of air. Sneezy was just dangling in the air his tongue sticking out and laying onto the noose.

"Get him down from there!" ordered Aladdin pointing to the corpse. "No can do, right now we need to preserve the scene. I wanted Elsa to take a good look at it" explained Basil. Elsa with a little hesitation got closer to examine the body. She noticed that there were some scratches on Sneezy's arm, and that a step stool was thrown into the corner and busted up.

"He's a short guy but this ain't exactly a tall closet either; not taller than seven feet. Must have been the only place he could have been strung up. I'm seeing some wounds, they look defensive in nature, I don't think he took himself out. Not willingly at least, I mean looks like he kicked the stool to the side, so I guess he in the end made the decision. But maybe he was under distress maybe someone was pointing a gun at him?"

"Maybe it was guilt" chimed Basil. Aladdin crossed his arms "Guilt?" Basil nodded his head "Think about it, you find Happy's dead body in the lake, who do you think put it there? My money is on Sneezy right now. He kills his friend, basically his brother and then in pure grief due to his guilt he kills himself." Aladdin mulled over Basil's theory for a moment while Elsa stroked her braid a bit. "It's possible, but I want Jack to take a closer look at this before we deduce that" replied Elsa. Basil began to move towards the other areas of the house "Best theory we have to go on thus far. Take your lunch break now you two, then go see Jack." Elsa moved to protest but Basil cut her off "And try and get a hold of the rest of dwarves! We've only been able to reach Doc thus far. Call Snow White she might know where they are." Elsa sighed, looks like she was going to have to hold down her food at the morgue once again. Aladdin was laughing at Elsa's expense.

"It's not funny Al, I have a weak stomach."

"Not funny? Come on you gotta admit it's kinda humorous."

"Get me Snow White's number I think she needs to hear about this."

"On it" said Aladdin as he stepped out of the room. Elsa continued to look at the body of Sneezy, his face was just twisted in such horror that there was no way his death was suicide. No someone had killed him, and that same person had probably killed Happy. She was going to keep it to herself for now; but this had all the signs of a serial killer at work.

Author's Note: Alrighty then chapter one is complete and chapter two will be coming soon any and all feedback is greatly appreciated! More characters will be introduced as time goes on.


	2. Chapter 2

\- Chapter Two –

Elsa and Aladdin pulled up to their favorite hole in the wall diner. The locals called it Flounder's diner, but that wasn't it's official name. It was just off of the highway and had been a staple of the county since the 40s. The same family owned the diner during all of this time; they had a secret pecan pie recipe that Aladdin marveled at and the coffee was the best Elsa had ever had. "It's probably just repackaged Folgers" Aladdin would always say, he felt that he personally brewed the best cup of Joe and while Elsa admired it there was just something about this diner's coffee that worked with her palette. Maybe that it was never too hot and never light in taste.

The two would usually spend a healthy hour in the diner, usually in silence. Aladdin would read the paper and every once in a while interject his political thoughts onto a news story "Can you believe what those so called geniuses up in congress are doing this time?" Elsa knew that no matter how she responded he'd go on a rant. To be fair Elsa was known to talk about pretty mundane stuff as well, she didn't like to let anyone into her personal life either so often her stories would repeat. "Did I ever tell you about that time Anna and I got stuck in Mr. Pearson's tree when we were little?" "YES." Aladdin would say and scan through the sports section, and she knew she had already told it to him a million times before.

Today there was to me none of that, they were going to strategize a bit. As they sat down and got the usual: Aladdin with a burger, fries and a water Elsa got a cup of coffee and their house salad with no dressing. "How can you eat a salad without dressing?" asked Aladdin with a mouthful of cow. "I told you, putting dressing on it defeats the purpose of eating a salad." Aladdin shook his head "Only if you put on a lot of it. Why don't you ever let me cook for you? I make a mean quinoa salad." Aladdin was a good cook, much better than Jasmine. Elsa remembered the first time she went over their house to eat dinner. Jasmine had made yams with green beans and chicken. The chicken and yams were overcooked but for some reason the green beans were not and Elsa had to chew like a mad woman to get it all down. "She's a princess, she never learned how to do any of that kind of shit" Aladdin smiled. Al was a master chef however, there was nothing he couldn't whip up, years of growing up having to fend for himself had made him into one. He always baked her a chocolate cake for Christmas and her birthday, something she and Anna always enjoyed.

"Al, what are we going to do about these murders?" asked Elsa as she dug into her mixed greens. "We don't know that they're murders they still could have been suicides, actually Happy's could have been accidental drowning." Elsa crossed her arms.

"Even you're not dumb enough to actually believe someone would go swimming in the middle of winter."

"Elsa, it's December 21st, we're not exactly in the dead of winter."

"It's still too cold for anyone to go swimming."

"Well maybe he fell into the lake."

"Oh come on! We found him with something in his mouth…"

Elsa stopped herself and realized a few people in the diner were eavesdropping she lowered her voice and whispered to Aladdin "Someone put that there. And even if Sneezy committed suicide he was under duress when he did it. Think about it for a moment will you?" Aladdin took another bite out of his burger and then swirled his fries in a pool of ketchup. "Okay so say they were murdered. What does that even mean? I mean…why?" Elsa had to pause at that "I don't know, maybe we can get some answers from the autopsy." "Aladdin swallowed "Screw the autopsy. I want to talk to the dwarves, they'll have any dirt on these two that can lead to their killer….that is IF they even have one. Elsa frowned, she needed Aladdin with her on this one; she had to admit she was going to need solid evidence before he'd be convinced, Basil especially.

Aladdin received the bill and as always he and Elsa split it. "Alright, let's head on down to the morgue, I'm sure Jack has something for us." Elsa nodded in agreement and the partners were on their way.

* * *

Jack Skellington was waiting for them when they arrived. His lab smock was clean as always and his eyes were dark and glassy and almost looked like globes of coal on his face. He was pale, thin and intimidatingly tall. He almost looked like a corpse himself, but his voice was just so bright and friendly one conversation with him would melt your fears about him away.

"Jack! How are you? How's Sally?" asked Aladdin as he put on a smock and along with Elsa and a surgical mask. "Oh she's doing just fine, lovely as always." If Jack looked like someone out of a horror movie his wife was worse: she was short and supposedly healthy in weight but she still came off as frail. She wore jeans and long sleeves all the time trying to cover up the scars she had acquired during the turbulent years of her life. Her most disturbing physical feature was her smile, which had obvious scaring from when she tried to cut open her mouth with a kitchen knife as a young teen. Jack had been her guiding light since college but the signs of her past were always on display. In some ways Elsa thought the creepiest part about Sally was that she was a self proclaimed gardener but she always carried dead flowers and plants around. If one of her plants died she'd mourn for it, like it was her fault. The woman who was always around dead botany and the man who liked dead bodies; match made in heaven.

Jack was still blow-drying the partially frozen body of Happy. He had thawed out most of him but there were still some frosty parts. "I'm almost done with him, but I already took a look at our allergy inflicted friend and I've got some interesting stuff to share" promised Jack as he put down the blow dryer and opened up a drawer containing Sneezy.

"I think he was murdered, any proof of that?" asked Elsa as Jack waved his finger "You're spoiling my fun deputy, but yes you're right to believe he was murdered. Look at his hands, what do you see there?" Elsa examined the hands on Sneezy "He is missing his nails. What the hell?" asked a confused Elsa. "We're dealing with a crafty devil here, sometime during the struggle poor Sneezy must've been fighting. He most likely scratched his assailant and fearing that bits of his skin were trapped beneath the fingers of Sneezy the assailant or assailants ripped out the nails!" Aladdin cringed at the thought.

"What's more, his fingers are coarse and irritated, like he was putting his hands against the rope. Whoever hung him didn't do it quite right and so his neck didn't break, so he strangled to death" continued Jack. Elsa took a closer look at Sneezy "Did you find any evidence linking to who may have killed him? Fibers? Unknown blood?" Jack shook his head "I'm looking for anything but I'm having trouble. Whoever did this was good, and it was clearly premeditated. Despite the bad roping this wasn't a sloppy job. Whoever did it got Sneezy's neck around the rope in a jiffy." Elsa mumbled "It wouldn't take much to overpower the guy."

"What about frosty?" asked Aladdin trying to keep it as light as possible. "Happy I'm afraid gives me even less to work with. I'd like to think this job gives me the ability to speak to the dead, but if I can this one ain't talking. Just a dead end, excuse the wording." Elsa and Aladdin waved off the offense. Jack led them over to the body of Happy once more and pointed to the deceased dwarf's jaw. "I managed to yank out what was inside his mouth….It was a tiny vice grip, for home improvement use." Jack pulled out the vice grip which was sealed away in an evidence bag. "No finger prints I already checked.

"Well maybe the vice grip and the rope were bought here in town. We should go to the hardware store and take a look later" suggested Aladdin, Elsa agreed. "Any signs of a struggle?" Elsa had to know if her theory had any more foundation. "I was just getting to this. Whoever killed Happy took him out from behind, I found forced blunt trauma to the back of the skull. It was multiple hits, something not particularly heavy based on the damage, but something hard. Enough blows with it…he was probably dead before he got dumped into the lake. At least, that's my hypothesis. I don't mean to speculate, but there is just no way this vice grip was put in his mouth while he was still kicking. This was carefully placed in to make him smile. From the look of it his body was in that lake for two to three days. Sneezy, that one was fresh he was killed just this morning." Jack was unusually somber. He was used to dead bodies from health related issues or accidents but murder wasn't a familiar part of life in Walt County.

"Looks to me like this is someone's idea of a sick joke" stated Elsa. "Who would hate Happy enough to kill him?" asked Aladdin as he placed his hands on his hips. "Some people weren't 'happy' about that reality show he had with the other dwarves a few years ago. Said it made us all look like backwater hicks" explained Elsa. "Most of the people in this town ARE backwater hicks! You remember what it was like for me back in '01 and '02 through 2014." Elsa snorted "Well that's everywhere buddy. It wasn't easy for me when I…." Elsa trailed off, she wasn't going there in front of Jack.

"Alright Mr. Skellington, you have been very helpful. I think we will…" Elsa was cut off by her phone ringing; it was Basil. Elsa answered it quickly and immediately was blasted with Basil's snooty attitude.

"Deputy Elsa, several of the dwarves and Snow White are here at the station. They'd like to speak with you; it was called them in after all. Now I'm going to start conducting some of these interviews but I need you and deputy Aladdin down here immediately. Don't delay." Basil hung up the phone before Elsa could even get a word in, groaning she looked to her partner. "We gotta go, Basil is neck deep in stuff he doesn't want to deal with. Jack, say hello to Sally for us." After gathering Jack's collected evidence the deputies were once again back on the road.

* * *

As they walked into the station there was still one last piece of information they needed to go over. "Alright you know the drill, you're good cop, I'm bad cop. Works best that way." Said Elsa her game face already on as she walked into the station. "It works best that way because it's not acting" chuckled Aladdin as they made their way to the questioning room.

Elsa waited outside with Basil looking through the one-way glass that kept them separated from the people inside. Inside the room was Doc who was still red in the face from a day's worth of crying. "He looks devastated" Elsa whispered to Basil, not trusting the technology of the sound proof walls. "Don't ever trust that. In my youth working for Scotland Yard there was once a man I interrogated for about an hour. A banker whose wife has been found raped and stabbed in some dirty back alley. He looked like a mess and sounded worse. Oh I was so convinced that he was mourning her death that I went easy on him. I let him walk out of that interrogation room as a victim, and he went home. Few days later the lab got back with us, told us it was his semen found inside his wife and that a knife found in a nearby dumpster belonged to the husband. Her blood was still on it and so were his fingerprints. We rushed to find the husband but he had already skipped town and left the country. Never found the bastard." Basil had never told that story before; Elsa was a bit shocked by it all.

"What happened to you after that?"

"Well deputy Elsa, that's how I ended up in Walt County…"

Basil gave Elsa a look that instructed her not to pry anymore. Elsa went back to looking inside the room, Aladdin was playing it by the book and giving Doc anything he needed to get him comfortable; in this case it was some hot tea. "I already questioned Bashful and Sleepy. Grumpy hasn't come in yet, and neither has Dopey but he's on his way. Snow White is waiting to talk as well." Elsa had to ask, "Anything that makes you think they may have killed their friends?" Basil shook his head 'no.'

"How long did Jack say they had been dead?"

"Sneezy was killed this morning, but Happy was killed a few days ago. Someone bashed in the back of his skull."

"Well nobody in this group killed Sneezy this morning that's for sure. They all have alibis, except maybe Snow over there. Haven't talked to her. Can't account really for a range of several days. But right now I've got no reason to suspect them, but as you know I've been wrong before."

Aladdin kept asking Doc similar questions to find a break in his story "So you were working this morning down at the clinic? What time was that again?"

"I already told you! 7am to 4pm, you can ask anybody I was there the whole time. Hell, I ate lunch in my office."

"Calm down Doc, just trying to get everything straight. I'm thorough."

"Sorry, I just want to go home. I can't believe they're dead. Does Grumpy know?"

"Yes, he's been informed. He should be coming in soon."

"Grumpy may have a rough exterior but he's a real softie. I don't know how he's going to take this. He and Happy were very close believe it or not. They balanced each other out."

"I can imagine. Doc, do you know anybody who would want to hurt Sneezy or Happy?"

"I don't know anybody. Happy never bothered anyone and Sneezy mostly kept to himself. They never spoke of enemies."

Aladdin nodded his head and wrapped up the questioning there was nothing else to gain from Doc. Aladdin went up to the glass and tapped it. "Yo Elsa, send in Snow White."

Within moments Doc was on his way home with the rest of the dwarves and Snow White was inside the questioning room, she looked disheveled like she hadn't slept and her makeup was ruined from the tears. Aladdin offered her a tissue, which she took. "Snow, I know this is really tough for you, but I need you to answer some questions." Snow tried to speak but she was sobbing so much she couldn't make out complete sentences. Aladdin's patience was running thin he motioned to Elsa with his eyes; it was showtime.

Elsa barged in making sure the door hit the wall before it's kinetic energy sent it snapping back to close the door behind her. Snow jumped at all this and dropped her snot filled tissue. "Alright Snow, we're all trying to go home here so let's make this quick. I need you to put on your big girl pants and answer my partner and I's questions. Got it?" Snow just nodded her head in agreement.

"Alright, where were you this morning?"

"I was at home, I got up, used the bathroom, took a shower and made breakfast."

"I'm going to need more details than that."

"I uh, made waffles with maple syrup. The good kind from Canada not the crappy store brand."

"Miss, I don't need to know the color of your shit I just need to know if you were shitting when the murder took place. When did you wake up? And did you leave the house? And if so at what time?"

"I uh,…well,…I got up around 6.30 and I was there most of the day, I had to run to camera store to pick up a new lens that had just come in. That was around 10am, I went to the store, but before I could get home I got the call that Happy's body had been found in the river and I…"

Snow White began to break down again sobbing as the memories rushed back to her. Aladdin placed his hand on her wrist comforting her "It's okay Snow, please keep going." Snow composed herself "So I got the call and then called everyone else to confirm. Bashful was so distraught I needed to pick him up and give him a ride in. I….we…don't know who would do such a thing. The dwarves have been my friends since childhood. I don't know why anybody would want to hurt them. Do you?"

Aladdin and Elsa let that hang for a moment before Elsa spoke "Snow, I'm going to need you and the dwarves to stay in town for a while. Don't leave until we say so." Snow began to stand up but Elsa motioned for her to stay seated and like a dog she obeyed. "Surely you don't suspect one of us would ever harm Happy or Sneezy?" Aladdin began to talk "No we don't but…" Elsa cut him off "Everyone close to the dwarves is a suspect." Now the room grew truly silent.

After an awkward pause Snow began to cry again. "That's all for now" assured Elsa in the least assuring tone possible. Aladdin helped Snow to her feet and guided her out of the room "We'll be in touch, get some rest."

Once Aladdin was done escorting Snow White to her car he met with Basil and Elsa to review. "I trust everyone's story thus far. Problem is it's taking us to dead ends" sighed Aladdin as he grabbed a cup of water. Elsa rubbed her temple and sat down at the edge of her desk. "Well when Grumpy and Dopey get here we'll figure something out." Just as Elsa was beginning to relax she received a phone call, reaching out she answered the call.

"Hello?" It was Belle, the assistant district attorney. "Deputy Elsa Arendottir I'm just calling in to make sure you will be in court tomorrow for the cross examination." Elsa almost let out an expletive, she had forgotten about the Stoneyard Bar trial. "Ah yes, I'll be there. 9am right?" Belle sighed "Be there at 8.30am please. See you tomorrow." Belle then hung up the phone and Elsa put away hers. "Dammit, forgot about tomorrow? Geez, why'd it have to be this week? Of all the weeks?" Elsa was asking this question out loud but Aladdin wasn't even really listening he was just texting Jasmine on his phone.

At that moment Grumpy walked in accompanied by Dopey, Grumpy was looking as standoffish as ever and Dopey's eyes were everywhere not being able to stay focused on a particular item or person for too long. "How long is this going to take? We need to be with our friends tonight. Dopey is already freaking out, and you all aren't helping by asking him to come down here." Grumpy growled almost all of his words Aladdin moved in front of Elsa "Standard procedure sir. The faster you answer our questions the faster we all get to go home." Aladdin tried to touch Grumpy's shoulder to calm him down but he jerked himself out of position. Aladdin stole a look back at Elsa as Grumpy led Dopey towards the back.

"Okay we're going interview Dopey first if that's okay" stated Elsa as she tried her best to make eye contact with Dopey who kept looking at the ground like a child. "He's really not in condition to talk without someone present, he's…special" explained Grumpy softening up a bit. Elsa and Aladdin looked towards Basil who had been listening in for confirmation. "It's fine by me" he said as he put a stick of gum in his mouth.

Grumpy an Dopey say together in the questioning room, both of them had refused anything to drink as Aladdin began to lead the questions "So can either of you account for where you were earlier this morning?" Dopey looked like he was trying to say something but couldn't get the words out, Grumpy however was ready "What's it to you?" Aladdin rolled his eyes a bit "Well we have to ask, it's for the records." Grumpy sneered "Well why don't you tell me where you were this morning?" Aladdin was willing to play ball, but he was already beginning to grit his teeth "Well if you must know I was with my wife and we were walking our cat Raja through our yard. He's a cat….he doesn't need a leash, but my wife is afraid he's going to run away."

"Right, I'm supposed to believe that! I don't trust you as far as I can throw you, for all I know you offed Happy and Sneezy." Elsa tried her best to keep her face stoic but Aladdin's demeanor was cracking, not ideal for their usual good cop, bad cop routine. "Excuse me?!" asked Aladdin fiddling with his pencil. "You heard me! I don't trust you people!"

"You people? What the hell are you talking about?"

"You an A-RAB! There are no Mosques in Walt County, why don't you get the message and pack up? I don't feel safe with someone of your allegiance holding a badge. I've read the Quran online, I know that if someone insults your religion you have to defend yourself. Jihad is what they call it, so maybe you should leave the room before I say something that forces you to kill me or go to Hell!"

"First of all that's a gross misrepresentation of the Quran, that is simply stating that you should never deny your faith even in persecution. It's very similar to a scripture from the Bible you might be familiar with: Matthew 10:33, but whoever denies me before men, I shall deny in heaven. And I'm not Muslim; I'm agnostic and if you saw how my wife dressed you'd know that. Are you and I going to have a problem? Just give me a reason."

Elsa had to step in now "Al, take five. I'm going to conduct the interview from here on out. Leave." Aladdin moved to protest but then stormed out of the room instead; he could be heard cussing under his breath. Once Aladdin was gone Elsa turned on all the dark charm she could "That guy right? I mean he's my partner and all and I trust him but he's one of the 'good ones' if ya' ask me. I mean it's not like all Arabs are terrorist just some of them, most of them don't have the guts." Grumpy leaned in "Yeah, they're too chicken-shit to actually blow themselves up for Allah but they'd do it if they felt they had to" agreed Grumpy with a smile that almost caused Elsa's hairs to stand up.

"Yeah, I mean they see us as infidels. US! The United States of America, our great nation is somehow the great Satan. We're trying to educate and bring freedom to them and they just spit in our face!" said Elsa crossing her arms pretending to be in disbelief. Grumpy chuckled and snorted at the same time "Well we're not as great as we used to be. But that's because we let some secret Muslim national be our President. Everything has gone to shit since we let his monkey ass in! Fucking hippies, when I was growing up there were divides. We didn't need no Jim Crow to keep us separated, that was just the natural order of things. I mean you don't wash your whites with your coloreds in the wash would you?" Elsa had taken one acting class in high school and every bit of those skills were coming in handy at this very moment. "I'm with you partner, just between you and me though. Heh, this country has forgotten what made it so great! I pray for it's soul everyday" whispered Elsa.

Grumpy was smiling but Dopey seemed zoned out, like he wasn't even there. No matter she needed Grumpy to get to Dopey anyway. "So alright let's get this done with. I need to get home, what were you doing this morning?"

"Well I was home until around 8.45 then I went to the Pharmacy picked up my prescriptions and then I went to the auto store, and then maybe Taco John's I can't remember." Elsa had to move mountains inside of her not to laugh a bit at the irony of Grumpy going to Taco John's. "I have all the receipts right here if you need to see them" said Grumpy as he handed Elsa crumbled up receipts as proof of his whereabouts. Elsa accepted them and then turned her attention towards Dopey.

"Can he speak? Is he mute?" It wasn't the most sensitive way to ask a question but the deputy figured that Grumpy was the kind of guy who used an axe where a chisel was required. Grumpy placed his hand on Dopey's shoulder "No, he just isn't very…good at speaking he uh,….you know he had to go to one of those special schools. But that didn't help much anyway, I mean if you get to know him he'll light up around you. This is just really hard for him, he was very close to Happy. We all were close."

Elsa nodded her head in understanding "Do you know where he was this morning?" Dopey looked up at Elsa but didn't say anything. "He was at the clinic with Doc, that's where he gets his medicine." Elsa prepared to write on her notepad "Is he sick?" Grumpy hesitated "It helps him concentrate." Elsa jotted down the note and then looked back at Grumpy. "Do you know anyone and I mean anyone who would have anything against Happy or Sneezy?"

Grumpy leaned back in his chair, arms crossed. "Well you know we rubbed some people the wrong way with our reality show. I said some things I probably shouldn't have said in public and then the liberal media turned it upside down and made me look like some sort of bigot. But uh,….Happy and Sneezy? They had their noses pretty clean. I mean some people weren't pleased, Ariel Triton the singer she was pretty pissed. But that girl is always looking for something to complain about."

Elsa raised en eyebrow "Ariel? What was she mad about?" Grumpy shook his head "She felt that we took away the spotlight from her in one of the episodes. In it we went to watch her preform and she said the show broadcast her worst performance and it hurt her career. I tried to tell her it wasn't my decision it was the editors but she wouldn't have it! And let's be honest her career has been on the decline for years; it wasn't our show that did her in. She was just jealous. She got in Sneezy's face and of course the guy sneezed all over and she really went off starting slapping and clawing him. I mean just a real psycho bitch." Elsa jotted down Ariel's name.

"Another person you may want to look at is Tiana. She had some nasty things to say about all of us." Elsa made note of Tiana and then went back to Grumpy who shook his head "Those are the only people I can think of off hand." Elsa nodded her head in understanding and then passed both Dopey and Grumpy her business card "Well if you think of anything else, you don't hesitate to call me. You're free to go, but try and stay in town for the time being." "Alright, not a problem" replied Grumpy as he guided Dopey out with him.

Elsa rendezvoused with Aladdin and Basil as soon as she could. "We'll need to check in on Tiana and Ariel tomorrow as soon as we can. Probably nothing, but you never know." Advised Elsa, Basil agreed "I know you have to go down to the courthouse tomorrow morning so Deputy Aladdin and I will go to Tiana's and if you're still stuck in court we'll go to Ariel's as well. For now just get some rest and we'll sort this out in the morning. We're going to get anywhere tonight." Aladdin and Elsa packed up their things as Basil stayed late to go over some notes from other cases he was investigating. Nothing dire, stolen property and whatnot.

Elsa was about to climb into her pickup when Aladdin called to her from his car, the one he had nicknamed 'The Magic Carpet' affectionately. "Elsa, you should call Lamin. He misses you, I saw him the other week. He looked pretty bad." Elsa paused, she wasn't thinking over what to do; just what to say. "He has my number. He can call me." Elsa finished getting into her truck and then sped off.

* * *

Elsa pulled up to her small ranch style house, it had been built in the 70s but Elsa had fitted it to look as classic as possible. She noticed a little red compact in her driveway; it was her sister Anna's car.

Elsa entered her home to find Anna in a big sweater and slim jeans lying on her couch watching TV. "I wasn't expecting you" was all Elsa could manage to say. Anna shrugged her shoulders "DVR is out at my apartment I wanted to watch Walking Dead from last week" explained Anna smiling at her sister. "How can you watch that garbage?" asked Elsa while she picked up her mail and shuffled through it, nothing but bills and junk. "I know you're not talking, you have every season of Duck Dynasty on DVD!" Elsa grinned "Everyone has a guilty pleasure, I also got the history of WCW on DVD just a few days ago. Early Christmas gift to myself" said Elsa as she plopped down onto the couch.

"You are such a dude. A dude who dresses very well" giggled Anna. "That I am" concurred Elsa as she pretended to dig her hand down her pants like a roughneck. "Elsa! That's disgusting!" piped Anna, her icy sister smiled and just pulled her hand out and tried to force it down it onto Anna's face as she playfully fought back against it. "Tell me what it smells like!" grinned Elsa as Anna pulled herself out of Elsa's grasp and rolled off the couch "No! No! That's gross! You're gross!" Elsa couldn't help but laugh as she stood back up and headed to her kitchen. "Want a beer? I got Odell IPA." Anna made a gagging sound "You know I can't drink that stuff. Got anything lighter?" Elsa searched through her fridge, "Sorry no" she said as she shut the fridge and uncapped her beer; drinking in gulps.

"What about Altitude Solar? You always used to have that" asked Anna, now it was Elsa's turn to make the gagging sound. "That was Lamin, he liked all those kinds of beers, not me." Anna got up from the floor and back onto the couch. "Hans likes stouts." Elsa sighed "You really like this Hans guy huh?" Anan smiled brightly back at Elsa "OH Elsa you need to give him a chance he's a really great guy. We have so much in common."

The deputy just scratched her head and then went into the pantry, searching for something to eat. "I mean we just have this great mental synchronization. It's like we can finish each other's…" Anna was cut off by Elsa "Sandwiches?" Anna had to snap back into the moment "What did you say?" Elsa held up a loaf of bread. "Sandwiches. Do you want me to make some?" Anna grinned "Oh yes please!" Elsa rubbed the back of her neck as she looked aimlessly throughout the kitchen "I need to go to the store for cold cuts PB&amp;J good for you?" Anna just nodded her head 'yes.'

After preparing the sandwiches the two sisters sat on the couch and began to watch TV. It was the local news; they were waiting for _The Tonight Show_ to come on when Jiminy Cricket 'the most trusted man in weather' began to go over details of a cold front moving in and possible blizzard. "Now if I'm lying may my nose start to grow, but I am telling you people to not worry about this Blizzard this is going to pass right over us. Its going to cut through northern Idaho and Montana and then up to our friendly neighbors to the north. Nothing to worry about, but do prepare for colder temperatures…."

As Elsa finished up her sandwich she could feel the hand of Anna on her thigh, the physical contact made her a bit uncomfortable. She could just never quite place it but something always felt a bit odd about Anna during moments like these. They had been happening sporadically since they were teenagers, and usually when Anna got drunk. Anna wasn't drunk tonight though and—NO Elsa was not taking her mind there. That was a ridiculous thing to even think, Anna was just more affectionate than she was. There was nothing wrong with that, she was the freak not her normal sister. Still, the hand was bothering her a bit and kind of tickling her so she moved to remove the hand but as she did she rubbed a bit of Anna's sleeve up and noticed something odd; a bruise.

"Anna? Is that a bruise?" asked Elsa, Anna was quick to an explanation "Oh yes! Yeah, I was on the ladder earlier because my satellite dish wasn't working and I KNOW I should have had the satellite people come, but I'm a little strapped for cash and so I got up there and had a little fall. I'm fine though, really." Elsa examined the bruise once more and she began to roll up the rest of the sleeve when Anna stopped her. "Elsa don't it's cold enough and your hands are always like ice. I'm fine!" Elsa stopped "Hey look if you're short on cash I can give you some money." Anan glanced at Elsa sheepishly "Well I could really use like $200, if that's okay. I'll pay you back next pay period." Elsa shook her head "No need, you're my sister. Just spend it on what you need. Nothing you just want." Anna smiled and kissed her sister on the cheek "Thanks big sis, you're the best! One more thing…can I sleep here tonight? They turned off the heat in my apartment." Elsa laughed "Sure Anna."

The two eventually made their way to bed as Anna fell asleep quickly pressing herself close to Elsa. Elsa shifted as best she could away from her red headed sister and eventually drifted off to sleep. As her mind went to her tranquil dreamland she was rudely spat out by the sound of her phone going off. Elsa grabbed it and answered it, still groggy from the sudden jarring noise. "This is Elsa." It was Hercules, the Lieutenant of the local fire brigade "Elsa it's Herc, we've got a problem over here. There was just a big fire at the house of Bashful, you know one of the seven dwarves. I'm going to text you the address, ya'll better get down here."

Elsa bolted out of her bed and began to get on her uniform "I don't understand, what do you need me for? I'm just a deputy." There was some slight hesitation on Hercules' part "Elsa, we found a dead body. It's Bashful's, I think he was murdered."

**Author's Note: Alright so that's chapter two. Please Review people it helps keep me going on stories like these and I always appreciate the feedback, also let me know if there is a a certain character you'd like to see appear in this universe. A lot should make an appearance but there is still time and room to add characters in so please let me know. Hope you're enjoying it thus far! **


	3. Chapter 3

-Chapter Three-

When Elsa arrived at Bashful's home the fire had already been put out. Some of the framing still remained, but most of the house was charred and utterly destroyed. Hercules was there to greet her as soon as she stepped out, fixing her jacket in the cold morning air. The sun hadn't even risen yet, but Elsa could tell that there was little left to salvage in the remains.

"Elsa, thank you for coming so soon, it's been a wild night" explained Hercules as he led her over towards the home. "Looks like your men were able to take care of the fire pretty quickly" noted Elsa, fishing for a compliment. "Kind of, it took longer than it should have actually." Hercules made the statement with a trailing off voice. Anyone else would have let it go, but Elsa had to push; part of the job.

"Herc, you said on the phone that Bashful was murdered. What makes you think that?" asked Elsa. Hercules was quick to respond "I don't THINK, I know. All the evidence is there." Elsa approached the smoldering house. "What evidence?" she asked, her boots crunching against some burned wood that had blown away from the house. Hercules motioned to a fireman who brought up a charred gasoline container. "Well that could have happened during the fire right?" Elsa had her own suspicions but was trying her best to play it down the line. Hercules just sighed "We found four more of these scattered about. These plastic containers are melted, if they had been caught in the fire they would have combusted."

Elsa had to pause at that, crossing her arms she took a deep breath. "So this was arson? Found anything that might implicate someone?" Hercules shook his head "Honestly, we haven't had much time to look. Feel free to look outside the perimeter, haven't seen anything yet. We'll let you know when it's safe to go inside the body of the house." Elsa nodded her head and began to walk closer to the perimeter of the house when Hercules tapped her shoulder. "You'll need this" he ordered as he handed Elsa a hard hat.

Silently groaning to herself Elsa put on the hard hat, she didn't really want to mess up her hair. It sounded petty in light of a murder, and it was. Still, Elsa needed to keep her center and the more irritation that piled up on her the more likely she was to lose focus. As she rounded a corner she managed to spot a boot print. It didn't resemble those of the firefighters and so she took a closer look. The boot print was on the smaller size with an obvious steel tipped toe. What made it odd however was the little black specks in the boot print. Squinting Elsa tried to examine it better but even with her flashlight it was near impossible to detect its material/texture.

"What are ya' looking at?" asked Aladdin, which startled Elsa a bit. He had come from behind the kneeling Elsa and his sudden entrance had caught her off guard. "Geez Aladdin, what took you so long?" asked Elsa, more mad about being startled than his mild tardiness. "You know how it is. I'm here to help now. Hercules filled me in." Aladdin explained this as he kneeled down next to his partner. "Trying to figure out what this is" whispered Elsa. Aladdin stared at the black specs in the bootprint and then leaned in to smell it, coughing a bit on his way up. "It's rubber; someone burned their boot a bit. Must've melted the soles of the boot" said Aladdin with some confidence. "I don't think this belongs to a fireman" proclaimed Elsa as she took out her camera and snapped a photo of the boot print.

"I think this imprint belongs to our killer" said Elsa with a little hesitation. "Well then let's get CI to take a sample and block off this area, don't want it mixing with the good guys. I'll also have them run everyone's boots against this one to make sure it's foreign to the scene." Aladdin may have been late but he was already on top of it. Elsa looked into the burned home of Bashful and wondered who would do such a thing. There was no prime suspect at the moment; she was going to need to catch a break soon.

After CI roped off the area and took photos Elsa began to talk with Aladdin. She leaned in to whisper, still not positive that nobody around had caused the fire. It would be the perfect crime no doubt. A firefighter is an arsonist, the power to know a house's weak points and the alibi of being there to put out the fire. A hero of the common citizen. Elsa could not afford the luxury that anyone was innocent.

"We've got to convince the dwarves to get protection with the department."

"We don't have the man power at our station."

"Well get the other stations to help. What about Captain Hook and his deputies? They're pretty efficient."

"They're also as crooked as they come. Killer could offer them $20 and a coupon and they'd look the other way."

"Sad thing is, you're probably right. But dammit we need to do something soon. This is getting out of hand, I'm sure this death is connected to the other ones."

"This is real messed up Elsa, but we've got to keep other options available ya' know? I mean Basil made a good point earlier with Sneezy, I mean maybe this was a guilt induced suicide."

"We go down that path and then we have to possibly let someone die while we sit on our butts. I don't like it."

"I'm with you."

"Got a bad feeling about all of this. I really do."

"Well you can't think about it right now. You've got to appear in court in an hour remember?"

Elsa slapped her forehead in frustration "You're right, I totally forgot!" Elsa gathered herself to leave while Aladdin sat down on a large flat stone. "You get out of here, I'll be sure to take a look at Bashful as soon as the area is clear. Elsa tossed Hercules her hard hat as she slipped back into her car, driving away she look one last glance at the house; then sped off.

* * *

When Elsa arrived into the courthouse she wasn't surprised to see it already packed with people there to watch the trial unfold. Belle was making her move to become the chief district attorney and any case she took on was now considered 'big news.' The prosecutor was Hades a fast talking man with an appetite for misery. He was an unattractive, tall and oddly shaped man. He clashed against the raw beauty of Belle whose skirts while conservative in nature seemed to hug her hips just right. It was no secret she used every trick in the book to win over the jury's favor, but Hades had a way with words and was quite the formidable opposition.

The case was nothing special; Ralph Badd was demolition entrepreneur who was being accused of inflicting his employees with bodily harm. It was no secret to anyone that he had a temper so the case initially seemed like a slam dunk for prosecutor Hades to win. If Ralph was found guilty it would make him an easy target for the eventual lawsuit that would be coming his way. Wreck-it industries was already not doing so well due to the lack of expansion in the county, but losing this case would spell disaster for Ralph. Hades had gotten cocky about the trial and let his guard down, and that was all Belle needed to compile evidence that many of Ralph's employees had personal vendettas against him for trivial and prejudicial concepts.

Ralph was a big guy to say the least, he was strong and a bit frightening in some regards. Elsa had not been involved with most of the trial but she had followed it somewhat. She had heard that when Ralph first walked into the courtroom that jury members were visibly shocked by his bulk. Still their view on him had softened with each passing day, Belle had strung together the very worst witnesses to the stand, but the best for her case. These employees of Ralph quickly exposed themselves and came off as greedy, petty and pretentious. Belle had the upper hand; until Hades had apparently shown a video of Ralph smashing up an employee's car in frustration.

This was the last day of cross examination and Belle really had to pull something out here or she would lose a fairly high profile case to Hades. It wouldn't cost her a chance at her intended career path, but it could slow her down. She was counting on Elsa as an expert witness, and also hoping Elsa wouldn't crack under the verbal lashing of her opponent.

As Elsa took to the stand she could feel the eyes of the 'honorable' Judge Claude Frollo trying to stare through her blouse. He always struck her as a perverted old man, he was well respected in the church community but Elsa had heard horror stories from female interns who worked for him. Nothing could be proven and Frollo knew so many prominent people it'd take a lot of guts to go after him, still Elsa found herself fantasizing about seeing him locked away. She caught her mind drifting and snapped herself back into the moment just in time for Belle to begin questioning her.

"Deputy Elsa, tell us about what happened on April 17th, 2011 between you and the defendant." Elsa paused for a moment, her nerves starting to get to her. So many eyes were on her, she could feel herself tensing up and her internal temperature rising. "No, not here" she thought to herself; she was prone to anxiety attacks. Taking a deep breath she tried her best to stay calm. "On April 17th, 2011 I was called to a worksite on Maze Rd."

Belle paced, occasionally looking at the jury and then back at Elsa, it was a soft but serious expression. "So Deputy Elsa, what was the call about? Do you recall?" Elsa had practiced "Yes, there was an altercation between the defendant and one of his employees. A Brad Thatcher." Belle smiled "What was in your official report?" Elsa swallowed "My official report stated that Ralph Badd had been attacked by Brad Thatcher, to be precise he had mud thrown in his face from Mr. Thatcher."

"Did my client retaliate in any physical matter?"

"He only removed the hand of Mr. Thatcher when it was placed on his chest in a threatening manner."

"Threatening manner?"

"He poked him the chest, Mr. Thatcher admitted to doing this and it is in my report."

"So even after an act of bullying and violence my client did not physically retaliate in a violent manner?"

"According to my report, yes."

Belle gave Elsa the side eye, that wasn't how she wanted her to phrase her answer. "Does my client seem like the kind of man who would violently attack one of his employees?" Hades stood up for that "Objection! Speculation!" Frollo nodded his head in agreement "Sustained. You know better miss Belle." Belle gritted her teeth a bit, she wasn't getting the leeway she was hoping for. "Now tell us about August 23rd, 2013. What happened then?"

"I received a call to come down to Wreck-It Industries because Ralph was threatening his employees."

"Did you ever witness him threatening an employee?"

"No."

"Did any employee show signs of injuries due to an altercation with my client?"

"No."

"Now we showed the worksite surveillance videos earlier, but when you viewed them did you see any signs of my client having hit and or touch another employee?"

"No."

"So basically it's a he said, she said with proven prejudiced witnesses?"

Before Hades could even stand up to object Belle cut him off "No further questions." Hades grumbled to himself and then approached Elsa, it was his turn. "Deputy Elsa, there was an omission in your statement wasn't there?" Now it was Belle's turn to object "Objection! He is insinuating that my witness committed perjury and with no basis." Frollo was quick to respond "Overruled, but be careful Mr. Hades." Hades grinned he had Elsa right where he wanted, Elsa knew she was in trouble and yet also had no clue how to defend herself from the coming onslaught. "Deputy Elsa I'm not saying you committed perjury, I'd never suggest such a thing. But you are forgetting to mention that the video surveillance tapes clearly show the defendant smashing up the car of one of the employees who claimed to be attacked by the defendant. His name is Clark Boyer, does that ring a bell?"

Elsa could feel the anxiety attack coming back on "Y-yes. He showed me a bruise on his ribs when I arrived on the scene but I thought…" Elsa was cut off she wanted to explain the bruise and why she didn't buy it but Hades was too good for her to say what she knew would bring the case down. "So a man has a bruise that is in your own report and his car gets smashed. Did you not in a statement to a media say and I quote 'that the vandalism to the car and the bruise on Mr. Boyer were most likely related'?" Elsa tried to get a word in but was stuttering "Y-yes b-b-but…" Hades was already finished "No further questions." Elsa sank in her seat, she had failed Belle no way the jury was going to side with Ralph now.

When a brief recess was called Belle stormed over to Elsa with fire in her eyes "What the hell was that Elsa?! You basically handed over the case to Hades!" Elsa was still a bit nervous and couldn't get her sentences out. "You looked like a scared deer up there! I am absolutely toast!" Belle began to pace back and forth when Elsa finally composed herself and approached the attorney. "Not exactly, the bruise on Boyer, it's too small. Ralph's hands are huge, if you can somehow…" Elsa was cut off again by Belle who was already texting someone on her phone. "Got it, alright that will work. Thank you, you may have just saved this case. Now get out of here. I know you've got things to do." And like that Belle began to walk away while a surprised Elsa slowly backed out of the courthouse, but not before Belle called to her. "And learn to breathe Elsa. Breathe." Elsa sighed, easier said than done.

As Elsa walked to her car she decided to give Aladdin a call, he had to have gotten access to the body of Bashful by now. Aladdin answered his phone with lightning fast speed "What's going on Al?" she asked as she unlocked her car door. "Elsa, I'm with Jack; get down to the morgue ASAP." Elsa hung up her phone and drove as fast as she could.

* * *

When she got to the morgue Jack and Al were waiting for her, and they were making direct eye contact with her. Elsa didn't even need to ask she was led to the slab where Bashful's body lay. "Jack was telling me something very important a little before you called." Aladdin then motioned for Jack to speak. Jack guided Elsa's eyes about the burned corpse of Bashful, he was almost totally unrecognizable. His skin looked like strips of bacon left on a skillet for far too long. "While examining the body, I discovered something interesting. It looks like he was killed before the house was set on fire. I found a wound on the back of his head. Eerily similar to what happened to our poor friend Sneezy, the fire was just a coverup."

"I guess the killer thought torching the place would hid the evidence" suggested Aladdin. "Anybody whose watched an episode of CSI would know that doesn't work" joked Elsa taking a closer look at the body. "Basil wants us to call the dwarves in. We're going to offer them protection. Which means…" Elsa groaned she knew all too well what this meant "I'm not going to go home tonight." Was all she could muster out of her mouth, Aladdin gave her a sarcastic point in return "Bingo!" Elsa sat down on a step stool, already exhausted from the day. "This is gonna be a long day…" she whispered as Jack continued to examine the corpse.

When Elsa and Aladdin got back to the station Doc and Sleepy were already there. Doc fidgeted non-stop, the silent walls of the station echoed with each tap of his finger or foot. Aladdin kind of got into a rhythm with the noise, but it annoyed Elsa to no end. She wanted to grab Doc and make him stop, but that would only agitate the situation. Besides, Elsa knew that deep down it wasn't Doc that was getting to her it was the killer and the Ralph Badd case. Just as Doc's fidgeting was becoming white noise Sleepy began to snore. Grimacing Elsa just tried her best to focus finishing on her report.

Basil eventually came to Aladdin and Elsa as Doc &amp; Sleepy slept. "Still no word from Grumpy or Dopey. Starting to get worried. I sent Phoebus over to check in on them, but they both weren't home." Johnson was another Sheriff's deputy he worked the graveyard shift. He was a tall but strong man, he was kind of handsome in a rugged kind of way. His wife Esmeralda was a sharp social activist who had been on both Elsa's side and an antagonistic force at one point or another. Elsa smirked to herself remembering Esmeralda calling her out in the paper for her "unjust" arrest of Ursula a few years back. Ursula had a psychic center and so called metaphysics school she ran, but Elsa shut it down after finding marijuana and LSD on the premises. The church had been pleased with Elsa; not that she did it for them but Esmeralda was livid. Esmeralda believed that marijuana should be legalized and used the case as a lightning rod to try and get a public vote about legalizing the plant. Elsa didn't care one way or another whether the drug was legal or not, but she was amused at how quickly it became a hot button issue in the state.

Esmeralda was kind to Elsa in some regard, not dragging her name through the mud despite several members of the media trying to get her to. Elsa felt Phoebus had something to do with that; he was the only man who could rein her in when she got fired up about something. Elsa admired her attitude and her courage, even when she was on the wrong end of it. She figured it was similar to that for Phoebus, but in a more sexual manner. Aladdin and Elsa never spoke much to him, due to the way the shifts fell together but he was always pleasant company. Basil even followed Esmeralda on twitter and instagram though Elsa suspected that was more for more dubious reasons than her boss let on.

Her boss was currently trying to reach Grumpy or Dopey, but it was another unanswered call. "Dammit, what in the bloody hell could be holding them up?" asked Basil as he stroked his chin. "You don't think they skipped town did they?" asked Aladdin, it was more an accusation than a question. Basil was just about to hail the probably extremely tired Phoebus when Grumpy walked through the main entrance.

"Where have you been?! We've been trying to reach you for an extraneous amount of time." Basil approached Grumpy with his chest out, Grumpy just walked past him grumbling. "I had stuff to do, believe it or not we aren't all scared of whoever this nut job is. I can handle myself!" Basil wanted to say something but his mind was in a rare moment just too jumbled by the anger of the situation. "Alright, let's go over some ground rules for your protection" said Elsa as she began to lead the dwarves back into a room. Aladdin was about to join her when Hermes the local mail carrier arrived. He was wearing his signature tinted shades as he handed Aladdin a stack of bills, a package tucked under his arm.

"Sheriff, when are we gonna hire an office intern or like a secretary? I shouldn't have to do this." Said Aladdin as he signed for the package. Basil grinned "Well we could always rehire Merida…" Aladdin held up the palm of his hand in protest. Elsa chuckled at the thought, Merida was a nice girl, but a bit too rebellious and spirited to work at a desk all day. As Elsa led the dwarves into a room she began to lay down her rehearsed monologue "We would prefer if you all stayed in one central location for the time being. We have a friend of the department who you all can stay with, we'll be there to stand watch and make sure nobody gets in…" Elsa was cut off by the raised arm of Doc. "You don't have to raise your arm Doc. But can we wait for questions until after I'm done talking?"

"Where is Dopey?" asked Doc with a cocked eyebrow. Elsa paused, she had forgotten about Dopey, in the relief of Grumpy walking in he had kind of slipped into the back of her own mind. "I'm not sure…we've been trying to call him" explained Elsa. "You idiot! Dopey doesn't answer phone calls he only texts!" barked Grumpy. Elsa shot a glare at Grumpy that she actually thinks may have got him to back down a bit. "Well let me text him and see where he is" Elsa assured as she pulled out her phone. That was when she heard the scream from Aladdin.

"ELSA GET IN HERE!"

Elsa sprinted out of the room towards Aladdin; she had never heard him scream like that. The dwarves followed behind her, she stopped dead in her tracks as she saw Aladdin holding up a Ziploc bag. Inside of the bloody bag was a severed pinky finger and some sort of gemmed ring. Sleepy began to vomit onto the ground. "Oh my God…that's Dopey's ring!" Doc was nearly gasping the air out of his own body. Basil went to his aid as Elsa stepped closer to the bag. Aladdin pointed to a letter inside the package. The letter simply read:

"4 DOWN 3 TO GO."

**Author's Note: Sorry this chapter took so long to post, promise the next chapter will be up much sooner had some projects had to take care of. Please review, Review, REVIEW! Your feedback makes it easier and quicker to write. Don't forget to check out my tumblr blog, the link is on y profile!**


	4. Chapter 4

-Chapter Four-

Sleepy, Grumpy and Doc all sat in the interrogation room together. They sat together with blankets draped over them to prevent against the shock their bodies were experiencing. Through the one-way mirror Basil, Elsa and Aladdin peered in; the steam from their hot liquids wafting across their faces.

"What kind of sicko are we really dealing with here? I mean killing someone is one thing, sending a body part to the people hunting you is a whole other level" asked Aladdin to the group their eyes already glazing over to detach from the situation. Aladdin had the box with Dopey's severed finger in the corner of the room, still unsure of what to do with it. He'd eventually have to take it to Jack, but right now there was just too much going on.

"I think we should tell everyone what's going on. Let them know there is a psychopath on the lose!" Aladdin continued with his conversation that at this point was almost with himself, but Basil cut in. "Aladdin, this guy isn't going after other people. He's after the dwarves. What would telling the public do besides create mass hysteria?" Aladdin slammed his fist on the glass "He's only killed the dwarves thus far! Who knows who else is on his list? What? Do we just wait until he kills someone for us to then sound the alarm?!" Elsa nodded her head in agreement "Not to mention the press will have our necks if they found out that we withheld information like this."

Basil mulled it over for a moment then nodded his head mechanically "Alright then if we're going to go in on this we'll need to go all the way." Elsa began to walk towards her desk "We'll call for a press conference give all the information we feel is pertinent and then hope it smokes him out. I'm sure a whole county on alert will make him paranoid. Paranoid people often make mistakes" reasoned Elsa. Basil just stroked his chin "Or get desperate and start doing even more horrible things." That statement hung in the air for a moment until Aladdin went to his desk and started dialing on the phone "Well if you guys aren't willing to get your hands dirty, then allow me!" Aladdin was obviously pissed, and disturbed by what had just transpired. He was going to catch this guy, Elsa could see it in his eyes; he was determined.

As Aladdin gathered the press for the eventual conference Elsa made her way into the room where the dwarves sat, huddled near each other like children. They lifted up their heads to acknowledge her as she stepped in, but did not make a sound. Elsa let the silence run it's course and then spoke "I am sorry for your loss. I know Dopey meant a lot to all of you. I know how it feels." Grumpy gave Elsa a low growl "You have no idea what we are feeling right now?!" That got Elsa to move forward a bit "When I was just a little girl my parents died on a cruise ship off the Alaskan coast. Cruise line said it was an accident, but there were passengers on the cruise that wrote us and swore up and down that it was a cover up. That someone on the ship, an employee had killed our parents. Tossed them overboard. Who knows. Who cares? They're dead, and if someone killed them I'd never be able to find the killer anyway so to hell with it! But you…we can catch the son of a bitch that did this. But I can't unless you all agree to cooperate with us. You don't have to like me, you don't even really need to respect me, but I need you to obey me. Otherwise I'm afraid you all will end up dead before this is over. Think you can handle that? Or would you prefer to take your chances?"

Doc and Sleepy immediately nodded their heads in compliance, Grumpy snorted but Elsa took his silence as commitment. "I need to know what's going on. Any secrets you all might have, anything that might be used against you, blackmail, leverage…I need to know. I can't protect you if I don't know what I'm protecting."

"Why does there need to be a motivation? Whatever happened to crazy people just being crazy?!" asked Grumpy, Elsa had to admit that he had a point, but she was just so tired of him dragging his feet that she dismissed it. "This is too calculated to be random, is there ANYTHING you need to tell me? Now is the time, short of murder anything you tell me right now I can protect you on. But the moment I walk out the door that deal is up." Elsa was bending the rules with this one, but she knew she could get Belle to back her up.

There was a moment of hesitation, Sleepy then slowly drew out his answer "We have some hidden treasure….it's very valuable." Elsa didn't even let the statement digest in her mind "Valuable? How valuable?" Sleepy was having difficulty responding when Doc piped up "Well over twenty million dollars worth of jewels, gems and precious stones. We haven't had it all appraised it could be worth far more."

Elsa jaw dropped to the ground, she wasn't sure what to say to all this. At that moment Aladdin entered into the room, already talking "Press conference in an hour. Basil is taking the lead on this one. We'll need to…" Aladdin sensed the change in the room and paused to take it in. "Elsa? What's going on?"

"Al, they have hidden treasure. Like actual hidden treasure like out of Treasure Island or Huck Finn!" gasped Elsa unable to catch her breath as she leaned up against the wall for support.

"It's Tom Sawyer, not Huck Finn" said Aladdin flatly.

"What?"

"Tom Sawyer is the one with buried treasure. Huck Finn is the one where Huck goes up the river with the black guy and they use the N-word a lot."

"Are you serious right now?"

"Oh it wasn't used in a racist way. Mark Twain wanted a realistic depiction of the dialect spoken. Still, it's a banned book because of it."

"No! I meant are you seriously arguing with me about literature when you just found out there is literally buried treasure in Walt County?"

"It makes sense. Reality TV doesn't pay that much."

"Shit Al,…I can't even talk to you right now."

Elsa buried her face in her hands for a moment, collecting herself from the information she just learned. Doc, Sleepy and Grumpy were all waiting pensively for an actual response from the deputies. Aladdin just scratched his head and Elsa was taking deep breaths.

"Where is the treasure located?" asked Aladdin. He instantly saw the look of hesitation and anger boiling up inside the dwarves. He should have worded the inquiry differently.

"We can't tell you that! That is generations of valuables we have gone at great lengths to keep hidden" snapped Grumpy already losing his patience with the situation. Doc nodded his head in agreement but Sleepy looked away.

"How are you sure it's safe?" asked Aladdin stepping forward. "Maybe this person who is attacking you…"

Elsa interrupted, coming out of her daze. "Al, think about it. Why would the killer even bother picking off people if he or she knew where the treasure was? Why not just take the treasure? My guess is whoever is killing you all wants information. And people aren't talking so….well…" Elsa trailed off at that, she could see the pain on the remaining dwarves faces; their brethren were gone.

"We used to keep our shares in our homes. But as the wealth grew we knew they couldn't stay in our houses. And we've never been ones to really trust the bank. So we took the treasure out a secluded location. A very particular location. If you're just a few feet off you'll never find it. We wandered around aimlessly, keeping track of our movements until we found the place we felt it could be hidden away from anyone; including ourselves. We even took a blood pact promising never to reveal the location to anyone outside of our group" explained Doc.

"Kind of intense" breathed Aladdin. Grumpy and even Doc glared at Aladdin's candor on that response. "Alright, so you bury the treasure. Did you leave any way for someone to find it?" Aladdin looked back and forth between the dwarves looking for someone to crack open the secret. Aladdin and Elsa waited in silence; the hum of the fluorescent lights became the soundtrack to the moment as the dwarves hesitated. The dwarves knew they had to reveal their secret but it was almost as if waiting would somehow make it easier. "We have a press conference in an hour so excuse me for hurrying this along but…" trailed Aladdin.

Grumpy was the one to reveal the secret, which surprised Elsa and Aladdin to no end. Each of us had a crucial piece of the map. Nobody could go there without every piece. It was our fail safe, and with the others dead there is no way of finding the location."

"But surely you must know the general vicinity" pried Elsa. Grumpy just shook his head. Doc rubbed the back of his neck, calming his nerves.

"We buried all of the treasure at night. We could tell you the general vicinity of two miles. Somewhere over near Elk's Horn but that's about as close as we could get you. It was near where the rock formation seems to make the horn, but we buried our valuables a little bit away from there. Felt it was too obvious" explained Doc.

"This is a damn nightmare" mumbled Aladdin under his breath slapping his palm onto the table. "Alright, so if this guy is going after the treasure why would he burn the house down? What he just takes the piece of the map in the night and THEN kills Bashful? Doesn't make sense. Why not just take the map and go? Bashful could have gone on weeks, months even without ever knowing it was missing. Why create the attention of murder? Or burning the man's house down? Whoever killed him had to have known that was only going to make it harder. So why do it?"

"Because the killer wanted to send a message" was all Elsa had to say for everyone to turn their attention towards her. "Think about it. Happy is forced to smile and pushed into a freezing cold lake so he can have a permanent smile, even in death. Sneezy is asphyxiated after being strangled; a man who struggles with regular breathing is killed by having his oxygen cut off. Bashful was known to have a red face, heat rushing through his body. He gets set on fire inside of his own home. Then Dopey a man who struggled with basic motor skills has one of his fingers chopped off. Who knows what else was done to him, but I'm willing to bet itwasn't pleasant. These are personal, and they are calculated. This person may not even want the treasure. Maybe he or she just wants to see all of you suffer. For something. I'm not sure what but something…"

"It has to be the treasure. Nothing else makes sense" said Sleepy as he rubbed one of his eyes, already feeling the stress of the day get to him. At that moment Basil stepped in holding onto the door handle to keep balance. "Press is here. Let's get this handled" was all the sheriff said before closing the door behind him. Elsa turned to the dwarves.

"You all are going to stay together. At a house, and we will have someone posted outside of your door at all times. We need to figure this out, and maybe when the time comes use you to bring the killer to us."

Grumpy stood up for that "Are you out of your mind?! You want to use us as bait? That's psychotic!" Elsa was unmoved by Grumpy's sudden burst of energy. Aladdin had to gently put his arm up as Grumpy almost lunged at Elsa who sat still with her arms crossed. "If you think for one minute we'd go along with that plan you're crazier than you look!"

Elsa smirked at Grumpy in a way that made even Aladdin uneasy "I suppose you'd like to go for the alternative, we leave you alone and wait for the killer to pick each of you off?" Grumpy just grunted in response and sat back down. "We're not feeding you to the wolves here. We're trying to trap the wolf…and kill it if necessary."

Sleepy spoke up "I don't want whoever is doing this dead." The ears in the room perked up. "I want to look into the eyes of the person who stole the closest thing to a family away from me. I want to know what kind of soul does this to other living things. Death would be the easy way out."

Elsa's face softened after that. And Aladdin nodded his head, the words of Sleepy reaching his heart. "We'll bring him in, I promise." The dwarves did not smile but they conveyed their gratitude with their eyes. "Which house should we stay at?" Aladdin said it like he was asking just Elsa but it was for the entire group.

"Somewhere with the least amount of exits and windows. The less access points the better covered it can be." Suggested Elsa as she scanned the dwarves waiting for someone to volunteer.

"That'd be my place, it's the safest plus I've got more guns than these tree huggers combined" snarled Grumpy in a way that might have been endearing. Elsa and Aladdin agreed to the location and then began to wrangle everyone up as the press conference by Basil began.

The press conference was brief, Basil did not allow for many questions and they all had to be pre screened. "The Walt County Sheriff's department is looking into all leads and we can safely say that the perpetrator of these heinous acts will be caught and will face justice." The media was trying to squeeze every little bit out of the sheriff as possible. The local news was going to go into overdrive the story was the biggest news to hit the area in years.

"We've got to get them moving" whispered Aladdin to Elsa as they snuck the dwarves out while Basil distracted the media by meandering with his answers. By the time he was done the dwarves were already safely on their way to Grumpy's house.

* * *

When they arrived other sheriff deputies were already at the house ready to keep watch including Phoebus who was spear heading securing the perimeter. Elsa greeted him as warmly as the situation allowed "Phoebus this is a real shit show. Keep these guys safe, I mean it."

"You know I will."

"I know. Just figured I had to say it."

"Elsa you and Aladdin need to go home and gets some rest. We're going to be fine here. We're gonna make some chili, turn on all the lights and just wait it out. We're armed and ready if anything goes down."

"Well you call me if something does. God forbid."

"Roger that. And Elsa…stay frosty."

Elsa smirked at his warning as she went to Aladdin who was waiting by the car after having dismissed the dwarves. "I'm going to drop off Dopey's finger to Jack. Why don't you go home? I can handle this. I can tell you're tired. I'll just drop you off at your place." Elsa had to admit the day had been rough on her with the court case, the fire and now all of this. She nodded her head and climbed into the passenger seat. "You should go see Lamin" said Aladdin as the car pulled off. Elsa just rolled her eyes.

"I'm not ready to talk to him."

"When will you be ready? You two have been separated for months now."

"I don't know. Maybe never."

"He didn't cheat on you Elsa. I don't know why you can't forgive him."

"It's not about forgiveness. He said he wasn't sure if he loved me anymore! Do you know how much that hurt?! I rather he had cheated. At least that'd make more sense."

Aladdin opened his mouth to say something but decided against it. He just nodded his head; it was no use to argue with his partner right now. They had bigger things on their plate.

* * *

Back at the house Sleepy, Grumpy and Doc were all sitting around. Doc sipped on a beer while Grumpy sipped on a neat scotch. Sleepy just drank water out of the pitcher. He was always thirsty, and constantly drank. Doc had told him that his over hydration might be causing him to feel bloated and thus sleepy all the time but his friend never heeded his counsel and it made no sense to get on him for it now.

"We should call Snow White. Tell her what's going on" mumbled Grumpy. Doc shook his head.

"Grumpy, we can't. We're not supposed to talk to anyone."

"Oh would you stop! She's probably worried about us!"

"Those are the rules!"

"They're talking about the media, not our friend!"

"They made it very clear not to talk to anyone."

"Well screw 'em, I'm calling her. Whether you like it or not!"

Doc sighed, there was no use arguing. Grumpy was going to do what he wanted to do. Doc peered over at Sleepy who had finished the pitcher and already fallen fast asleep. Grumpy called Snow White and for about twenty minutes the two discussed what was going on. He assured her they were safe.

"We're fine Snow White we're calling from…" Snow White cut him off. "No! Don't tell me Grumpy! Who knows if someone is listening in?! I won't risk that. We've already said too much, get off the line. I'll see you soon. Be safe!" And with that the call was ended. Grumpy sulked back into his seat, he had always had a thing for Snow White. He wished that she was there with them in this moment.

Hours passed and eventually as Phoebus came into the room to check on them they all started to move towards the living room; where they would all sleep. Doc began to put away the glasses when while picking up the water pitcher he noticed a strange residue at first mistaking it for a water stain a closer look revealed a grain like substance. "What the hell?"

Phoebus was trying to move Sleepy so they could move into the living room but he wasn't budging. The blood left Doc's face. "Check for a pulse!" he screamed so loud that Phoebus jumped a little. Phoebus quickly checked for a pulse and felt nothing. Sleepy's skin was ice cold and he was already starting to stiffen up. Phoebus's jaw dropped and Doc dropped the pitcher that shattered onto the wood floor.

"What the hell is going on?!" asked Phoebus as he neared Doc stepping onto the shattered glass in the process. Doc breaking into tears plopped down onto the ground.

"Sleepy…he was poisoned! The son of a bitch poisoned him! Oh God no! No! No!" screamed Doc as he began to cry and slam his fists onto the ground much like a child would having a temper tantrum.

Phoebus hesitated for a moment but then got onto his radio "DAVID-5 to all units we have a code 3, I repeat we have a code 3! Get a bus down here ASAP! I repeat Code 3!..."

**Author's Note: Only a few more chapters left! Please leave feedback!**


	5. Chapter 5

-Chapter Five-

A few hours earlier…

Elsa arrived inside her house, she called out for Anna but she wasn't there. Turning on some lights she plugged her ipod into a speaker system and it immediately began playing Otis Redding's 'The Dock of the Bay.' Taking a beer and a salad she had saved she began to eat and sip; staring at her TV but not having the interest in turning it on.

A few minutes passed and the deputy dozed off on her couch the bowl for her salad resting on her toned stomach. She was awoken by a phone call on her landline. Jumping up and spilling the remainder of her salad onto the floor she grumpily answered the phone "Hello?"

The voice on the other end was her estranged husband's "Hey Elsa, was just calling to uh,….check in." Lamin's voice sounded more sad than desperate, more lonely than depressed.

"Hello Lamin. What do you want?" Elsa sighed internally that was too harsh of a reaction. She was always just so cold towards him, towards everyone. She needed to really work on that personality flaw; but she had been saying that for over a decade now.

"I just wanted to know if you were okay, saw the press conference on the news today."

"Yeah the shit is really hitting the fan isn't it?"

"Yeah…"

"Mhm."

"You know we haven't done anything together in a while and…"

"Wasn't that the point of creating some space?"

"Well yes SOME SPACE, but what you don't even want to try and make this work?"

"As you pointed out I'm kind of in the middle of a big case right now. Don't really have time to go see the sights. Besides what is there to see that we haven't already seen?"

"Well that musical group 'The Muses' are coming through next week, maybe we could go to the show? I can get us tickets."

"I don't think that's a good idea Lamin."

"Why not?"

"I think we need to start seriously looking at our relationship. I mean you keep saying let's make it work but…maybe it's not meant to. I don't know, I just need some time to think. And I can't think with all this going on. Now just isn't a good time."

"I understand. Well if you change your mind about the show…"

"I'll let you know."

Elsa hung up the phone with some force. Leaning against the kitchen counter she took a deep breath. Their marriage had been so perfect at first, maybe too perfect. Lamin just admired her too much; she couldn't live up to his expectations. She was distant, she was cold, and she was aloof in their relationship. Eventually the stress became too much and they separated. It had been hard on the both of them, but in particular Lamin who had moved to Walt County to be with her. They had met in college at the University of Wyoming, he was from Detroit and had gone to the university for scholarship money. They had an instant chemistry, one that made many of her other suitors jealous. Once they started dating they never looked back, never took any time to slow down and before they knew it they were married.

Elsa felt like she had personally failed Lamin when she admitted to him she had no desire to have children. It would've slowed down her career and she knew she'd make a bad mother. She just didn't have the patience for children like he did. Lamin accepted her decision but he was never happy about it, and thus their marriage slowly began to unravel.

It wasn't like she hadn't sacrificed for him however. It wasn't easy being the sensual white woman married to the black man from Michigan. She had been bullied, harassed and emotionally prodded by many people she had grown up with. She had given up many of her personal habits and preferences to keep their bond steady. But it had all basically failed in the end. If Elsa was honest with herself the only reason she hadn't completely divorced him was because as bad as her image was in the town now, a divorce would shatter it. Maybe she could work things out with him, maybe they could be happy like they once were. But Elsa wasn't a happy person, that expression that feeling didn't come to her easy. And Lamin just could never seem to understand that.

Before Elsa could wallow more in her self-pity she heard the door unlock and the creaking feet of Anna come inside. Anna must've thought she was asleep; it was late but not that late. "Anna?" she asked startling her sister who was obviously drunk and or high. She was stumbling around and her eyes were blood shot and she reeked of alcohol. Elsa took another big sniff near the wobbly Anna and recognized the smell of marijuana. "You're cross faded?! Anna where have you been?" asked Elsa as she guided Anna onto the couch.

"Hans and I were just having a good time" explained Anna, slurring her words. Anna belched her breath stunk with the aroma of cheap whiskey. "But then he got drunk and passed out, so I came over here. Don't worry I called a cab" giggled Anna as she hugged Elsa tightly.

"Anna, what do you mean you just left? Why wouldn't you just spend the night?" Elsa asked her voice beginning to rise with concern.

Anna just shrugged her shoulders. "I wanted to be with my big sis" as Anna said this Elsa arm went to prop the slouching Anna a bit when she touched her side and caused her younger sister to wince. "Ow, ow! That hurts!" cried Anna moving away from her blonde haired kin.

"What's wrong? Are you hurt?"

"Just sore from working out."

"That doesn't sound like sore muscles Anna…"

"I'm fine! Okay I'm fine!"

"I was jus…"

"Drop it!"

Elsa went silent, she wasn't going to push it at the moment. She opened her mouth to say something but was interrupted by her own phone going off. Moving away from Anna who fell onto the couch already trying to fall asleep. Elsa moved into the kitchen to take the call.

* * *

Aladdin was just getting out of the shower and entered his posh bedroom where Jasmine sat reading a book. "Ugh, what a day. Glad it's over, barely got any sleep last night." Groaned Aladdin as slipping into some pajama pants he crawled into bed with his wife. "How are you doing hun'?"

Jasmine put down her book and scowled at him "I don't want you on this case anymore." Aladdin sat up his eyebrow raised, he wanted to say something but he figured it was better to just wait until Jasmine finished her piece. "People are dying, what if this sicko decides to target the people hunting him? Or his loved ones? You aren't thinking this through Al!" Aladdin swore he could see a vein popping out of Jasmine's forehead; he was going to need to tread lightly here.

"You know the oath I made when I took this job honey. We're almost done with the case, I think we're real close to nailing this bastard. I can taste it! He's not going to hurt anyone else, and he sure as hell will be caught before you know it! I've got this."

Jasmine's face softened a bit, as Aladdin caressed her hand. It was as if the strokes from his hand across her dainty knuckles was lowering her blood pressure. She smiled and he grinned back as he hugged her and kissed her on the neck. "Now put that book down, you can finish it later…" Jasmine giggled as Aladdin began to lower the direction of kisses down her negligee. Then there was a phone call, moaning her answered it. "This better be good Elsa….good lord…I'll be right there." Aladdin hung up the phone and the concern had returned to Jasmine's face. "It's Sleepy, he's dead" Jasmine gasped cupping her hands over her mouth. "I have to go. I'm sorry."

Aladdin moved to get up but Jasmine grabbed his arm as he went to move out "I'm pregnant." It was all she needed to say, Aladdin paused for a moment soaking in what he had just been told.

"I'll be back, I promise" said Aladdin with a crack in his voice as he began to get dressed. Jasmine just looked down at her bed sheets as her husband left her alone in the room.

* * *

After going to the crime scene and dealing with the media frenzy, and the inconsolable Doc and Grumpy Elsa and Aladdin were already exhausted. They were both running on a combined seven hours of sleep in the past 48 hours. There was nothing they could do, and little evidence to how Sleepy had been poisoned. There were no fingerprints on the glass pitcher other than Sleepy's and Doc's. It could have been Doc' fingers on the pitcher if he was suddenly the greatest actor in the world, but Phoebus seemed pretty confident that it wasn't the good doctor's doing.

Elsa and Aladdin found themselves back with Jack who also was visibly tired, though his fatigue seemed to be more spiritual than physical. Jack had been examining the substance for hours found in the pitcher and he finally had a conclusion for the detectives by noon. "Sleeping pills, crushed up sleeping pills. A little bit is fine but too much will kill you. Someone put enough in there to kill a horse, and seeing how sleepy never needed the medication in the first place he had no sense of immunity to it." Jack's words were attached to the situation in a rare moment he was more than a coroner he was someone now invested in the solving of this case.

"It had to be someone who knew that Sleepy would be the one to drink the water. He was the only one. Someone knew. Someone was careful and precise. It was done to match his personality like the other murders." Elsa was shaking her head as she spoke, clenching her fists up. She felt powerless, she felt trapped, and she felt afraid.

"I'm not sure if we can stop this guy before it's too late. He has a plan in mind, and he's not going to stop until it's complete" growled Aladdin as he sat down on a nearby stool. Aladdin turned to Elsa who placed her hand on his shoulder.

"I'm going to go speak with Jafar, I know you don't like him. But we need him" said Elsa. Aladdin just nodded his head, but with a clear frown.

"I'm going with you, we're doing this together" replied Aladdin as he stood to his feet. Elsa didn't dare protest his decision and nodded in agreement and turned to Jack. "What can you tell me about the melted boot soles we found?"

Jack read from a notepad "The material is not the same standard issue the local fire department uses so we can rule them out. Based on the imprint we are looking for a man with a size 7 foot. But that's all I can tell you" said Jack with a smidge of disappointment in his voice.

"That might come in handy. Thank you Jack" said Aladdin flatly, the life in the room was just dried up; which is saying a lot for a morgue. "Alright Elsa, let's go talk to Jafar…"

* * *

Aladdin and Elsa arrived at 'Iago's Beak' it was a seedy dive bar at it's core but it managed to attract a few hipsters because of it's low prices, local music performances and Jafar's slight of hand tricks that he used as bartending pizazz for customers willing to give him a nice tip. The reason Aladdin and Elsa were there was to get some tips of their own. Jafar had been a drug peddler and thief when he was caught; he could've spent over 10 years in county for all his crimes but was able to get released early for discretely cooperating with the authorities. Going to prison was the perfect cover to make it seem like he was a true hardened criminal but that was all just a cover so people would still talk with him. Elsa was always surprised what a few drinks could get out of criminals and Jafar was more than willing to rat someone out…for a price.

Jafar and Aladdin didn't get along for numerous reasons, Aladdin was never down with the idea of him getting a light sentence and during her wilder years Jasmine had almost died of an overdose after Jafar mixed her cocktail with some pretty heavy drugs. To this day Aladdin stood by the fact Jafar was trying to take advantage of his then girlfriend now wife, but Jafar denied it. There was no evidence so it wasn't even brought up in court but Aladdin just knew in his heart of hearts Jafar wasn't to be trusted. But at the moment they needed him, any lead, anything that could take them to the perpetrator of these heinous crimes.

Jafar was at the bar as usual mesmerizing a young hipster by making his drink vanish in and out of his hands as he took a card and 'magically' pulled it out from behind the ear of the bearded youth. As Elsa and Aladdin approached he managed to excuse himself as he stepped into his office to talk.

The office was well kept, with different exotic décor placed strategically about. Jafar had good taste if nothing else. He was a rather flamboyant man after all, always taking it to the nth degree with his look and even the manner in which he spoke. Yet it all fit him, it always made sense for what was necessary.

Jafar sat down behind his desk and leaned back in his Mediterranean style wood chair. "Ah deputies what do I owe the great pleasure?" His words crawled out of his mouth like a snake and caused Aladdin to tense up.

"I'm sure as you know there have been a lot of killings recently. Serial killer, knocking off the dwarves, need to know if you've heard anything through the grapevine" explained Elsa.

Jafar just snickered "What you didn't come here to just pay me a friendly visit? I figured that out the moment you two walked through the door. It's all anybody is talking about. It's quite the juicy gossip, I'm practically salivating to sink my teeth into this morsel."

"You're amused? People are dying" said Aladdin already growing annoyed with the situation. Jafar just curled his goatee a bit and grinned showing his white but slightly crooked teeth. "If you know anything and you're not telling us I'll have you brought in for impeding an investigation!"

Jafar laughed "Oh Aladdin, your words are nothing but empty threats. I am protected by the U.S. Marshals, the FBI and your own department, don't even attempt to sway me with that. I need to know what's in it for me? What do I get if I tell you this dirty little secret I have lodged in my brain?"

Elsa's eyes pierced through Jafar "Something tells me you don't want Tupperware." Jafar just put the tips of his fingers together building up the anticipation for his eventual reveal.

"I have a shipment of some fine ivory from sub-Saharan Africa coming in soon. There are friendly merchants interested in procuring this fine bone and I would appreciate if the local law enforcement didn't give them a hard time. They pose no real threat to anyone and I'd like it to stay that way. I know you have my place bugged so I'd really like you to just ignore this little…transaction."

Aladdin rolled his eyes, but Elsa kept her composure as her partner began to lash out a bit at Jafar she motioned for him to calm down. "Alright Jafar we'll play, but this information better be good. Or your friendly merchants are going to meet me, and I am not going to give them a warm welcome. Do we understand each other?"

Jafar nodded his head grinning "Yes, yes my dear. I wouldn't even dream of requesting such a moment of levity from the law if I didn't have something that would be of great help to you." Jafar stood up, and the tall man sauntered over to a unmarked file cabinet and using a key unlocked it. The barkeep pulled out a thick manila folder and handed it to Elsa who snatched it out of his hands. Chuckling he sat down and with bated breath watched as Elsa and Aladdin opened up the folder.

They were photos almost all of them were in black and white, but they were…graphic. At first they started out innocent enough just a few pictures of the dwarves hanging out drinking beers, 'Prince' Charming and Show White appeared in some of the photos. Prince Charming and Snow White used to date but they had broken up years before. They had stayed close friends and some still said they held a flame for each other. But Elsa wasn't so sure about that, she had always thought Charming was a closeted homosexual. She could be completely wrong about that of course, and many still thought she was in the closet herself so who was she to even consider accusations like that?

The pictures slowly became shadier; it was like Jafar had organized them for a slow build to something shocking. That is when Elsa and Aladdin collectively realized that Jafar had planned to show the photos to them all along; he just wanted a bargain beforehand. Pictures began to feature Snow White alone with individual dwarves, putting her hand down their pants or stuffing their faces into her cleavage. It was fairly harmless, not a crime by any means but then Aladdin flipped to one photo and nearly dropped the whole stack.

It was Happy and boy did he have a smile, a vertical smile as well and planted right on that vertical smile were the lips of Snow White. "What the actual Hell?" gasped Aladdin flipping the photo to Jafar.

"Oh I've seen them already my boy, I've seen all of them." Elsa and Aladdin continued through the photos they were devious and filled with lewd sex acts that would make a porn star blush. All of the dwarves in particular Dopey and Grumpy were seen in countless sexual acts with Snow White. But these just weren't sex acts; they were almost always with a BDSM twist. The dwarves were collared, tied up, on their knees and even being lightly abused by Snow White in almost every picture. It was easily one of the most uncomfortable things Elsa or Aladdin had ever seen.

"Where did you find these?!" asked Elsa while she quickly examined a photo of Snow White bull whipping Dopey who was nude; spread eagle on a bed.

Jafar lost his smug look "That idiot Dopey tried to get copies at the local print shop. T was just the ones of him; he used the self-service print machines. But that print shop keeps a digital copy of everything printed for…insurance. Once my friend over there noticed what was on his files he called me over. I figured that one-day that they'd come in handy. Especially if I ever wanted to blackmail the dwarves to get their buried treasure." Elsa's eyes grew wide, Jafar laughed like a hyena "That's right my dear I know all about that! You think they could keep a secret that big away from me in this town? Oh if there is treasure to be found, I will seek it and find it."

Elsa felt sick to her stomach; she couldn't believe that these men could be so deviant in their sex lives. She didn't want to judge them, but this was all a lot. Aladdin seemed less shocked about the sex itself and more that it was the dwarves partaking in it. "What kind of men get their rocks off doing this?" asked Elsa as she looked at more photos.

Aladdin was taking an extended look at a nude photo of Snow White. "Well don't judge them too quickly. We all have our kinks. I like mid drifts and roleplay and you like black men."

Elsa scoffed at her partner "Just because I married one doesn't make it my kink or my fetish asshole!" Aladdin just laughed and nudged Elsa playfully.

"Calm down Elsa, I'm just trying to keep it light" said Aladdin as he put the photo down and examined another nude photo of Snow White, this one far too lewd to describe.

"We've talked to everyone in these photos, most of them are dead. The only one we haven't checked out yet is the so called-prince Charming. I don't see him having sex in these photos, but I'm willing to bet my hat it's the reason he broke it off with Snow White. I think it's time we paid him a visit. What do you say partner?" asked Elsa already taking the photos and getting up to leave. "You've been most helpful Jafar, we'll be taking these. Not that it matters I'm sure you have copies right?" Jafar simply nodded his head 'yes.' Turning to Aladdin the two left the office of Jafar. Prince Charming had a lot of explaining to do.

**Author's Note: Please leave reviews/feedback! We're nearing the home stretch appreciate any and all thoughts, comments etc. on this story!**


	6. Chapter 6

-Chapter Six-

The sound of the car's tires bumping across the cold road was the only noise being made as Elsa and Aladdin drove towards Charming's house. Aladdin kept his eyes on the road until they were almost at his posh ranch style home. "Alright Elsa, I need you to keep Charming distracted. You know the deal" whispered Aladdin as the car came to a complete stop. Elsa simply nodded; the two of them were unsure if they would even want to find what they were looking for.

Walking up Elsa was the one to knock, and after only a few brief moments Charming opened the door. Elsa had known Charming as a strikingly handsome, well kept, dashing and well….charming but the individual standing before her was none of those things. Charming had put on a little weight, nothing that a few months at the gym couldn't fix but it was noticeable. He had a full beard that even came out of his neck, it smelled sour from the food and alcohol he had been consuming. His white t-shirt was stained like his beard and the yellowing on his teeth and armpits were cringe worthy. He was even wearing old pajama pants that were a size too small on him. Elsa kept her poker face but she could tell Aladdin was not.

"Yes, officers? Can help you?" The 'H' on his help sent an unpleasant whiff to the nostrils of Elsa.

"Charming, we need to ask you a few questions. Do you mind if we step inside for a moment?" Elsa pierced his eyes with her own pupils she was in command of the obviously dilapidated Charming, but he still had enough in him to offer up a bit of resistance.

"Can I ask what this is all about?" asked Charming crossing his arms and by doing so exposed his armpits enough to give both Elsa and Aladdin a gust of odor.

"It's about Snow White, the seven dwarves and some of her more…dubious hobbies" said Elsa letting it burn into the conversation. Charming just nodded his head and led Elsa and Aladdin in. If Charming was in bad shape his house was worse. The whole place was falling apart, flies buzzed around garbage that hadn't been taken out. The whole place smelled like spoiled fruit and whiskey and the floor was sticky with spilled beer and other unknown substances.

Charming led the deputies to his still well kept couch that was surrounded by an island of trash and Chinese take out. "How did you find out?" was the first thing Charming asked his hands folded like he was about to receive bad news. Elsa looked to Aladdin before explaining to Charming what they had 'stumbled upon' she kept Jafar's name out of her play by play. Charming just sighed "Figured it would come out eventually. I told Snow that she needed to stop, those guys couldn't be trusted. Bunch of perverts, they didn't see the art in it they just wanted to get their rocks off."

Elsa tilted her head a bit "The art?" Charming nodded his head and then stroked his disgusting beard.

"The art of a dom/sub relationship. Snow was a total S&amp;M queen, the best there is. I just fell in love with her the first time we made love. I mean it was beautiful she had so much control and…I thought that was where it stopped. You know, private bedroom type shit."

"I'm afraid I don't follow."

"It was Snow's idea to start having sex with the dwarves, I was opposed to it at first but it made her happy so why not? I mean a queen needs her subjects, am I right?"

"I'll have to take your word for it."

"Anyway the dwarves were just so out there, they kept getting her to try new things. Sick things, she asked me to record them, take photos while she…she just did everything with them. It was deplorable! What we had was love, what they had was lust! Plain and simple!"

"So you two broke up over her extra relations with the dwarves?"

"There were other factors, she was starting to do some weird stuff to make money like webcams and commissioned tapes of her masturbating. She didn't like working so she found out other ways to make money, ways she wouldn't be dependent on me. I just couldn't do it anymore. It took everything in me to break it off with her, but I was done with her games! Not only that she started getting more and more kinky and sometimes would ignore my safe word and just keep going until she was…finished with me."

Charming looked away, towards the ground after revealing that bit of information. Elsa then took the chance to give Aladdin a glance; that was cue. "Charming, sorry to ask but do you mind if I use your restroom?" asked Aladdin with a natural comfort that he had gotten from years of smooth talk.

Charming piped up to respond "Oh no I don't mind. The one down the hall is clogged so go upstairs and use the one on the right at the end." Aladdin nodded his head and slinked away. It was now his chance to search about the house while Elsa continued to stall Charming with questions. Elsa moved in closer to Charming.

"Charming, is there anyone outside of you or the dwarves who would know about your sexual activities?" Elsa was pensive, she didn't want to make Charming too uncomfortable, it was imperative he didn't become paranoid of them.

Aladdin was upstairs searching through the house of Charming. Pulling his collar up to his nose he was able to make it past the stench of the home. Aladdin was no rocket scientist but he figured that being a submissive man Charming kind of fell apart hard after his break up with Snow White. This had all the makings of a sociopath, and he didn't want to leave Elsa alone with him for too long. Still, he had to know if Charming was hiding something; and he was positive he was.

Aladdin realized there were so much filth everywhere it would be nearly impossible to find anything. Latex gloves were usually given to officers in case they came in contact with blood; Aladdin was no germophobe but he felt he was going to need them if he was going to start to move around Charming's old clothes.

Aladdin quietly stepped into Charming's bedroom and surveyed the bed which had a pizza box, porn magazine and bottle of Jack Daniels on it. Looking under the bed with his flashlight he could find nothing. Knowing he was running out of time Aladdin went for a Hail Mary and opened the closet of Charming's bedroom and was immediately hit with a rotten stench. Crouching down he started shifting through his clothes. After tossing a pair of boxers that he could literally snap in half he found something that made him gasp in the foul air; boots. But not just any boots, these boots had the soles completely melted off.

Aladdin went back downstairs with the boots to find Elsa still talking with Charming. As Aladdin moved closer he could tell Charming wasn't even registering the boots in his hand, he was still lost in a fog of memories. "Elsa, I think you should have a look at these." Aladdin held up the boots which Elsa glanced at, immediately noticing the burned soles.

Elsa simply sighed and then pulled off her handcuffs "Prince Charming, you are going to have to come with us." Charming raised an eyebrow, but offered little resistance as Aladdin and Elsa took him away.

* * *

Grumpy and Doc sat in silence in their comfortable study. Usually the windows of the patio looked out into the spacious forest surrounding the house but today the curtains blocked the view, a sliver of sunlight was all that managed to get in from the outside world. There wasn't really anything to say, just about everyone they knew was dead and they both felt responsible. Finally Grumpy spoke up but his voice had become raspy from non-use "It's my fault Dopey is dead. I should have been with him, I didn't know what was going on. I just…I didn't know."

Doc moved to place his hand on Grumpy's shoulder. The two didn't always get along but in many ways they had always been the unofficial leaders of the group. They both saw things differently but they had a common goal and they had worked hard to reach them. Hard work, determination and loyalty were traits the two of them shared and at this moment the petty arguments they fought over didn't matter anymore.

"It's not your fault Grumpy. It's nobody's fault, how could we have known this would happen? Someone out there hates us so much that they're willing to destroy us all one by one. We just have to hope the authorities catch whoever it is."

Grumpy just rested his chin on his knuckles "Does it even matter?" Even if Elsa and Aladdin catch this bastard what then? I don't know about you, but I already feel like I've been destroyed."

"You can't talk like that old friend. We can't give up now." Doc reached out to Grumpy who brushed off the gesture and stood up to look at the clock. "I'm going to go check on dinner" said Doc as he left the study.

Grumpy huffed as the door closed and then examined the curtains. He wasn't supposed to open the curtains, but he didn't see the point in following the rules; they hadn't kept any of them safe thus far. As he stared out the window at the beautiful forest he spotted a body moving amongst the trees. Startled he almost called for Doc but after taking a closer look he decided to go investigate. Opening up the window Grumpy crawled out and ran towards the forest, towards the figure, towards the trees he played in as a kid, towards something familiar, towards death.

* * *

Charming was eerily silent as he sat in the interrogation room of the station. Elsa, Aladdin and Basil didn't know what to do with him. They all stood outside the room looking in as they strategized. "So he kills the blokes sleeping his love in hopes she would come back to him? It's personal enough, I can't argue with the logic, especially since you found those boots. Melted soles from the fire he started, don't know why he wouldn't throw them away" mused Basil.

"The guy was a real slob, attention to detail doesn't seem like his forte" reasoned Aladdin sipping from a cup of water. Elsa crossed her arms however her face twisting in bewilderment.

"Yeah he's a real slob…and all the murders. They required real attention to the small stuff, the details, they were planned and calculated. Thought out days, weeks maybe even months in advance. And yet he lives in filth he lives like a man who doesn't wake up knowing if he's even going to put on pants…" Elsa's voice trailed off things just weren't adding up.

"What are you saying partner?" asked Aladdin with genuine inquisition. Elsa paced a bit and then leaned up against the wall. "You don't think Charming did it? Then who?"

Elsa paused for a moment then her eyes grew wide as she took the melted boots and stormed into the interrogation room. Aladdin followed her and Basil watched from behind the glass. Elsa handed Charming the boots with some force "Put them on!" Charming hesitated and began to stutter "I SAID PUT THEM ON" screamed Elsa.

Charming fumbled with the boots and began to try and put them on but his feet wouldn't fit. He kept trying to stuff in his feet but they were too big for the boots. Elsa stared at Aladdin who was also beginning to realize what was going on "I can't get them to fit! These are way too small! Whose are these?" asked a panicked Charming.

"Oh God, Al…these aren't his boots. Someone planted them there, someone wanted us to find those boots and think they belonged to him." Elsa and Aladdin rushed out of the interrogation room leaving the confused Charming behind.

Aladdin and Elsa darted down the hallway towards Basil who was already waiting for Elsa's explanation. "Sheriff! I know who our killer is!" Basil nodded his head signaling for Elsa to elaborate. "Who was in all of those photos we saw Al? Who was in all of them? Who is short on money? Who would be the only one who could possibly know about the dwarves treasure?!"

Aladdin let out a gasp "Snow, Snow White!" Aladdin backed up a bit taking in that revelation. Basil seemed a bit chocked as well.

"Deputy Elsa we need to call over right away. Grumpy and Doc could be in grave danger!" As Basil reached for his phone his walkie talkie went off: "All units we have a Code 3, Code 3 over on Crestview Drive…" Basil's eyes grew wide that was where Doc and Grumpy were as well as Phoebus. "Deputy Elsa and Aladdin get over there right away!"

Elsa and Aladdin grabbed their coats and ran towards their car. They hoped they weren't too late.

**Author's Note: Only one more chapter left! Please leave feedback/reviews!**


	7. Chapter 7

-Chapter Seven-

All of the lights were on in the house and various people were together keeping watch over the near catatonic Doc. Phoebus watched Doc as he stared out into space, his mind drifting into the abyss. There was nothing to say to the man all Phoebus had managed to say the past few hours to him was "We're going to find whoever did this." It was an empty promise; not because Phoebus didn't think they couldn't find the killer but because at this point it truly didn't matter.

Doc just looked lost, he was in another world far away from this one. Phoebus fiddled with an evidence bag inside it was a ripped piece of cloth from Grumpy's clothes. There was no visible signs of blood, but they couldn't find the body of Grumpy, the drag marks had been erased by whoever took him. He just couldn't figure out who could be so cruel.

The knocks at the door startled the officers, but Phoebus motioned for them to lower their weapons. There was procedure to follow in a moment like this and Phoebus wasn't going to take any chances "Gold bird." The words hung for a moment but then there was the reply of Aladdin.

"Proud bird" was the response from Aladdin. Phoebus nodded his head and let Elsa and Aladdin in who almost burst through the door. Elsa seemed out of breath as she approached Phoebus and took him gently to the side out of the hearing range of Doc.

"It's Snow White, she's the one whose been killing the dwarves" whispered Elsa. Phoebus was strikingly calm and waited for Elsa to finish. "She's been picking them off so she can collect their individual pieces of a treasure map."

Phoebus stroked his stubble for a moment and stole a look at Aladdin who had crossed his arms in exhaustion. "Makes sense, as much as I hate to admit it. Grumpy ran off, but the only way he'd leave the house is if he was going to someone he trusted. And it was no secret to anyone paying attention that Grumpy had a thing for Snow. It was only a matter of time." Phoebus placed his hands on his hips and rubbed his holstered gun. He stared at Doc who hadn't moved from his lounge chair in the past hour. They had offered him water but he was too frightened from how Sleepy had died to accept it.

"Phoebus, we're going after Snow, we need you to stay alert here and make sure she doesn't come back towards here for Doc. You have to keep him safe" ordered Aladdin. Phoebus nodded his head understanding the gravity of the situation. Elsa and Aladdin then motioned to the other deputies and left the house. The sound of their boots echoing off the porch steps across the plains.

Elsa got on her walkie talkie and asked for back up to be sent behind them as they went to Snow White's house. Aladdin and Elsa didn't say anything as they drove closer and closer to their destination. This wasn't a situation they were used to, neither had ever shot anyone before. They hoped that Snow wouldn't become their first.

* * *

They turned off their car lights as they approached her house. It was a little cottage style home, with a well maintained garden and a pristine stone walkway. Her home was the envy of many people in the surrounding area. Snow had a true gift for cleaning and organizing, a talent that Elsa couldn't help but feel had aided her in cleaning up evidence at crime scenes.

Walking up near the porch Elsa sent Aladdin towards the back of the house in case Snow White tried to make a run for it. Running would be a truly foolish idea but much more wild things had happened in moments of desperation. Elsa tried her best not to make a noise with her steel tipped boots as she went to her door. Taking a deep breath she erased all of the caution she had taken and began to bang on the door. "Snow White, this is the Walt County sheriff's department! We have a warrant for your arrest!"

There was no reply at first, then without a single light in the house coming on Snow White answered the door, her face was a mess of mascara; she had been crying a lot. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry Elsa!" Elsa hesitated for a moment, but then grabbed Snow and handcuffed her as she began to read her the Miranda rights. "I'm so sorry! You have to believe me I'm so sorry!" Elsa and Aladdin marched Snow White to their car; the night wasn't over yet.

* * *

Back at the station Basil was looking like someone from skidrow with his eyes nearly popping out of their sockets as he sipped on what had to be his fifth cup of coffee. Snow White was in holding, handcuffed and whimpering to herself in a corner. There was a video camera on her and Aladdin was glued to it while Elsa was finishing up some paper work.

Basil swirled his spoon in the finger mixing in his cream, the coffee was having to get softer and softer as his bowels were getting more and more irritated with each cup. He turned to Aladdin "So what's next deputy Aladdin?"

There was a moment of trepidation and then Elsa looked up from her desk "We're going to grill her until she confesses to everything, and before she gets a lawyer to make this more complicated than it needs to be." There was no arguing at this point, no matter what happened it ultimately wasn't going to be very pretty.

Aladdin and Elsa got up and approaching the holding cell's door. They took a collective deep breath and then glanced at each other. "Good cop bad cop?" Aladdin pointed to himself with the 'good cop' line. Elsa silently nodded and the two partners entered the holding cell with authority. Snow White avoided direct eye contact with them as they sat down, already in character.

"What kind of monster kills people like you did? Some real sick shit Snow, real sick shit." Elsa could see her words were doing extreme damage to Snow White as she cowered in the corner.

Aladdin moved in already a calming presence. "Take it easy Elsa. This is a lot right now, mind your temper. Snow...help us help you. This doesn't have to end badly, we can still make things right." Aladdin was convincing so much that even Elsa was almost buying into it.

"It's all fucked up. It's just...I can't. It's all my fault!" Snow White could barely speak through her tears. Elsa moved in closer, Snow's will power was as thin as a sheet of paper. It wasn't going to take much to break her.

"Why'd you kill them Snow? Money problems, you don't think they would have given you something? You think they wouldn't let you in on it?"

Snow White now moved in towards Elsa, startling Elsa a bit as she slammed her fists onto her own thighs. She glared at her, Snow's eyes were red with tears and her lip was quivering. "No! I didn't THINK they wouldn't help me, I KNEW they wouldn't. I was barely scrapping by for years and they were out there with more money than they knew what to do with and then I ask for just a little help so I can leave this shit hole of a town and they won't help me! Not even when I promised to pay them back with interest! No they wouldn't let me go, not as long as I was the one woman on the planet willing to fuck 'em! So when I found out that had such an excess of money they had buried some of it I swore that I would get it from them one way or another! I gave them everything! I gave them purpose, pleasure, someone who could properly dominate them and all they gave me was misery!"

Elsa broke character, she wasn't expecting all that. She couldn't help but display some form of empathy on her face as Snow White continued to break down right in front of her. She got up and without a word motioned to Aladdin to take control, without missing a beat Aladdin slide in near Snow White and handed her a Kleenex. Snow White blew her nose and tried to wipe away some of the mascara.

"Snow, I know this is a lot right now. And it's only going to get worse unless you help us out. Where is Grumpy?" Snow White turned to Aladdin raising an eyebrow as high as she possibly could. It was so involuntary it looked unnatural. "G-Grumpy? What are you talking about?!"

Aladdin froze for a moment then spun to Elsa whose jaw was beginning to drop "Grumpy! We found his shirt ripped up right outside of the house. Is he still alive?!" Elsa was asking the question but she was already one step ahead of Snow White's reply.

"I didn't kill any of them, I mean I knew they were going to happen b-but Grumpy was never supposed to be hurt. Neither was Doc. Grumpy always gave me money out of his pocket to keep me afloat, he was a good one. And Doc was starting to warm up to giving me a loan. S-so I would never have hurt them! NEVER! Especially not Grumpy!"

Now it was time for Aladdin to break character, there was no time. "Snow you gotta tell us, were you working alone?" No response from Snow White, she just started sobbing. Aladdin gently grabbed her by the shoulder "Look at me Snow, I need to know right now, were you working alone?!" Snow White was still just crying and screaming incoherently. Aladdin was getting frustrated "Listen here you crazy psycho bitch! You better tell me what the fuck is going on! Or so help me I will make sure they give you the needle!" Snow finally just let out a sob and shook her head 'no.' "No? No what? You weren't working alone?" Snow White nodded her head 'yes.' And then Aladdin got to his feet and backed up a bit, avoiding Snow like she was radioactive. "Fucking shit! Fucking shit! Aww God, Elsa! Shit!"

Elsa was startled, Aladdin wasn't a good ol' boy but she had never heard him curse like this. "Al, what's going on? What's wrong?" Elsa put her hand on Aladdin's shoulder trying to calm him. But the deputy was fidgeting and shaking.

"Every body, every dwarf that was killed we had a body. A body he wanted us to find! A body THEY wanted us to find! To send a message, it was personal yes. Yes, but who was someone they trusted even more than Snow? Who did we never find a body to huh? Like fucking all of the other bodies were right there but one son of a bitch we never saw the body to…the same motherfucker who got the photos developed! Elsa! I know who Snow is working with!"

* * *

Doc had excused himself to the bathroom, and was sitting on the toilet. There was a guard posted on the outside of the door. At that moment Doc received a message on his phone, and he couldn't believe who it was from…Dopey.

Doc quickly began to text the person back, surely it couldn't be Dopey. The message read "Still alive. Hurt. Need Help." Doc was terrified, Dopey was in trouble as he frantically began to send a text message back Dopey sent another one in all capital letters "NO POLICE OR I DIE" Not wanting to risk anything Doc knew what he had to do. Carefully removing the nails that had been placed on the window to keep anyone from climbing in he slid out and began to make a dash for the highway as Dopey texted him directions on where to go. It was a familiar place…

* * *

The shocks and the oil were getting a workout as Elsa and Aladdin sped fast as they could towards the location of the treasure. Snow White had spilled everything to them, and as they headed towards the rock they received a call on their radio that Doc was missing. "No need to apologize, we were dealing with something out of our control here" soothed Elsa over the radio.

To get closer to rock formation the treasure had been buried near Elsa and Aladdin had to do a little off-roading with the car, Basil would not be pleased but it was the only thing they could do. Parking their car at the base of the cliff they turned on their flashlights revealing drag marks and two sets of footprints. Drawing their weapons the two partners made their way up the cliff.

As they got closer they could hear the whimpers of Doc "Please Dopey, don't do this!" Elsa and Aladdin picked up the pace, but tried to stay quiet wanting to get the jump on Dopey but as they reached closer their shadows were spotted by Dopey who immediately took the tied up and beaten down Doc in his arms. He wrapped Doc in a headlock and put a syringe to his captive's throat. Elsa was out in front as with her gun fully drawn and aimed at Dopey. "Stand back! Or I swear I'll kill him!" It was a warning from Dopey the deputies had no reason to doubt.

"Dopey, think about what you are doing here! This is crazy, even if you kill Doc you will not get away. We can stop this right here, right now! Nobody else has to get hurt!" Elsa was really trying to get through to Dopey but she could see he was crazed, his eyes were darting about, when he gritted his teeth she could see they were dark yellow almost brown. He really had severed his own hand and cauterized the wound, he was using his forearm to keep Doc's neck still and the already beat down Doc wasn't giving much of a fight. She could see the bruises on his face. As she glanced to the side she could see the dead body of Grumpy, blood was coming out of his nose and ears. "What the hell did you do?!" She couldn't help but ask.

Dopey grinned "Adrenaline shot, right to the heart of Grumpy, multiple times! His heart literally exploded, oh you should have heard the sound he made it was fucking hilarious!" Dopey began to laugh like a hyena and Elsa and Aladdin just had to watch. It was eerie to even hear Dopey speak complete sentences.

"Why'd you do it Dopey? These men were basically your family, your brothers!" Aladdin's voice cracked a little bit. He wasn't exactly sure how to approach this, they had to protect Doc.

"Why not?! Do you know what it's like being the freak to everyone! To have them all step on you, look down at you, talk down to you?! And then Snow White comes along this b-beautiful a-angel! The most beautiful creature on the planet and she not only pays attention to you...she loves you...I...I love her so much! I'd do anything for her! Anything do you hear me?! And she spends time with me, and I realize that I'm always just going to be the freak unless I'm the only one left! That there will always be something holding us back. So she told me that if I could get the treasure we could be together. No more sharing, no more having to play second fiddle to THESE FAKE FRIENDS!" Dopey was inching the syringe closer and closer to Doc's neck.

"Okay Dopey, I don't doubt that, I don't! I really don't. But right now the best thing you could do is let Doc go. If you kill him it's only going to get Snow in more trouble" Elsa tilted her gun down, and tried to move forward but Dopey jerked him and Doc back.

"Don't come any closer! There is nothing but air in this syringe! I inject this, he dies! A doctor being killed with medicine. And I know, I KNOW air isn't exactly medicine but give me a break here I'm doing the best I can with the circumstances!" Dopey almost laughed at his own words but those laughs quickly became uneasy pants.

"Dopey it's over, we have Snow in custody. Please stop this before it's too late" Aladdin was keeping his distance but was refusing to lower his weapon. Dopey's eyes were beginning to dart once again.

"No! No! NO! That wasn't supposed to happen! We were going to run away, I was going to have the money! You can't do that to me! You can't do this to me! We were going to get married!" Dopey was now starting to stomp his feet like a toddler kicking up dirt around him. Elsa began to inch in a bit towards Dopey.

"Dopey, I'm sorry. But you cannot keep hurting people! It's time to come in." Elsa lowered her gun and extended her arm out towards Dopey, hoping he'd accept the gesture. Aladdin moved in a bit closer as well.

Dopey looked down at the ground "I'll never get to be with her, will I?" Elsa wasn't sure what to say so she remained silent. "Alright, I'm done with this. Done with all of this..." Dopey then dropped the syringe to the ground and Doc sighed in relief then Dopey took his free hand and whipped out a switchblade quickly cutting Doc end to end across the neck. Elsa and Aladdin let out screams and tried to reach Doc in time but it was too late and blood spurted everywhere and the doctor fell to the ground choking and gasping as he bled out. Dopey just laughed and laughed, dancing around in a small circle.

Aladdin put his hands to his head and began to vomit "Dammit! Fucking dammit! The son of a bitch did it! Fuck!" Aladdin was just falling into a rambling of frustration and horror and Dopey was just about gone as he pointed at the dead body of Doc cackling like someone who had a few too many drinks at a comedy club. Elsa couldn't even focus on anything else anymore.

"Dopey" Elsa breathed as she locked eyes with the dwarf. Dopey stared back at her his eyes beady and cold. "Snow White didn't love you. She just wanted the money." Dopey stared back at Elsa tears forming in his eyes. That's when Elsa pulled up her gun and shot Dopey right between the eyes, the bang from the gun echoed throughout the air. And Dopey's corpse flopped to the ground as Aladdin silently approached Elsa.

"Well that's that" sighed Aladdin. Elsa just nodded her head "Yeah, I guess it is." Elsa and Aladdin stared at the dead bodies for a moment and then Elsa sat down on a rock and pulled out her walkie talkie. As she called in the situation Aladdin decided to look away from the carnage and gaze up at the stars that seemed to shine extra bright that night.

* * *

The next morning was a frenzy that became a haze for Elsa and Aladdin; Basil handled most of the questions and there were many to be answered. All of dwarves were dead after all and Aladdin and Elsa had decided to go with the story that Dopey had charged them and that's why Elsa had to shoot him. Basil probably didn't buy it, but he was too exhausted to question it.

Tinkerbell was aggressive as ever with her piercing inquiries but Basil managed her well, explaining that because Dopey had faked his own death the prime suspect was seemingly eliminated from the investigation. Snow White was set to stand trail and it was sure to be a media circus, one that Aladdin nor Elsa was looking forward to. But finally as the day wound down, Elsa got dressed in her civilian clothes; blue jeans and an egg shell colored sweater. Aladdin was in sweat pants and a black shirt he had forgotten about in his locker, the two of them met outside the station and said very little to each other. Then they both went their separate ways.

* * *

When Elsa got home as expected Anna was home but as she entered the house she could sense something amiss was in the air. "Anna?" Elsa saw Anna was sitting at the kitchen table in the dark and wearing sunglasses. Elsa moved to her and sat down next to her "Anna, are you okay? Why are you sitting here in the dark?"

Anna shrugged her shoulders "Oh I just have a nasty headache. One of those ones where you're sensitive to light. You know?" Anna's voice was strange and raspy like she had been crying a lot. Elsa thought back to the trial she had been at earlier in the week with Ralph. She quickly removed Anna's sunglasses before she had a chance to stop her. Elsa gulped as she saw Anna with a fresh black eye.

"I was being stupid Elsa, it's my fault!" Anna was already coming up with defenses as Elsa stood to her feet. "He loves me Elsa, I just push him too hard sometimes. You know how I can be! But Hans would never really hurt me, I mean he didn't mean to hit me this hard." Anna was still talking while Elsa grabbed her gun and then stormed out of the house with Anna chasing after her. "No Elsa, no! What are you going to do?!"

Elsa was already getting back into her truck a scowl on her face as she turned to her sister "Whatever I need to do!" Elsa then got into her truck and drove off, the smell of burnt rubber was in the air. Anna immediately got on her cell phone and called Aladdin.

Elsa almost forgot to put her truck in park as she drove onto the lawn of Han's house. She got up and cocked her pistol screaming out to Hans "Hans! Get out here you piece of shit!" There was no response and Elsa banged on his door a few times. "Hans! I'm warning you! Get out here right now!"

Hans yelled at her from behind the door "Unless you have a warrant you can piss off!" Elsa just grunted and then took her gun and shot the door off the handle and kicked it down. A shocked Hans got up from his seat and as he did this Elsa charged at him but Hans was ready and grabbed Elsa and pushed her through his patio glass. The glass shattered as Elsa went back first through the glass, she lay on the ground bleeding from her shoulders, side and back as Hans grabbed her and lifted her up. "Get off my property you crazy bitch!"

Hans was yanking Elsa by the braid and Elsa managed to elbow Hans in the side and then in the nose. Hans held his beak in pain as Elsa hooked him from behind the legs and slammed him down MMA style. The two wrestled on the ground but Hans had the strength advantage and flipped Elsa on her back and pinned her down as Elsa pulled up her hands to Hans face and grappled his lips and poked his eye. Hans winced and managed to loosen his grip just enough for Elsa to slam her forearm into his skull; multiple times. Hans let go of Elsa and she quickly hit him with an uppercut and then as she got to her feet she slammed her elbow across the top of his skull knocking him to the ground.

Elsa started to catch her breath as she stood above the downed Hans and as she hesitated he began to get back up. Elsa prepared to kick him down again when Aladdin rushed in and grabbed Elsa from behind in a bear hug. "Elsa! What the hell are you doing?!" Elsa struggled but Aladdin had a good grip on her and she began to kick and scream as she tried to hit Hans who was wobbling back to his feet.

"Al No! No! Stop it! He's been beating Anna!" Elsa was trying to break free of Aladdin but he wasn't letting go of her. Hans was to his feet and just had the biggest smirk on his face.

"Elsa, you can't go around doing that!" Aladdin eyed Hans with anger, he knew he was a prick but there was nothing he could do about it at the moment. "Anna called me and she told me she's not pressing charges so we have to go!" Aladdin tried to lead Elsa out who was still attempting to force herself away.

"Oh she may not be pressing charges but you can be damn sure I'll be filing an official complaint to your department" snickered Hans as he wiped the blood that was trickling out of his nose. Aladdin glared at Hans but decided to not pursue any kind of come back as he finally dragged Elsa out of the house.

"Let go of me!" barked Elsa, and finally Aladdin agreed letting go of Elsa who shoved Aladdin after he released her and then leaned up against her truck, taking long deep breaths as she made eye contact with Aladdin. "Al, I'm in deep shit aren't I?" Aladdin nodded lightly. "Basil is gonna suspend me isn't he?" Aladdin opened his mouth to make some kind of response but stopped himself, unsure.

"Go home Elsa" was all he could say. And his near white haired friend could only spit out the blood in her mouth in response. Then she climbed into her truck and drove off.

* * *

Lamin was downing his third beer at the bar as Jafar poured him another Belgian ale, placing a sliced orange on the rim. As Lamin sipped from it he heard a familiar voice behind him "You're still drinking that fruity stuff? Jafar, I'll have your strongest IPA." Said Elsa as she sat down next to Lamin at the bar.

"Hello Elsa, rough day at the station?"

"Oh you could say that."

"Sorry to hear that."

"It happens."

"You wanna talk about it?"

"No, not really."

"Alright."

There were a few moments where the two were both quiet just taking in the sips of their beers. Elsa was the one to break the air a bit more "So you still thinking about going to see the muses?" Lamin just smiled and nodded his head and then Elsa smiled back.

"Should be a good show, they've been all over the world" said Lamin as he smacked the taste of the beer off his lips.

Elsa took a big gulp from her IPA and turned back to her estranged husband "And who says theres nothing to do in Walt County?" The two shared a laugh as they buckled down for a long chat at the bar.

**Author's Note: Thanks to all who have read this! Walt County will return but going to finish a few other projects first. Thank you for reading once again and please leave a review/feedback always such a pleasure to write for people!**


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